Saving the planet with gravel dust
Gravel dust, often available free from the silt ponds at gravel pits, and rich in minerals and trace elements, should be added to your garden, according to the Soil Remineralisation movement. This movement is most active to date in Austria, Germany and the USA. Robert Schindele, for instance, writes: 'I discovered the phenomenon of gravel dust by accident. While building a 1.5 mile long road through my forest property near Melk, Austria, a lot of gravel dust developed. In areas where this dust settled, within a few months all the sick fir trees became healthy again and have grown very strongly since.'
'In areas where this gravel dust settled, within a few months all the sick fir trees got healthy again'
Don Weaver in his book with John Hamaker on the subject of gravel and rock dust ('The Survival of Civilisation', Hamaker-Weaver publications, California) writes: 'By adding gravel screenings from industry gravel pits east of San Francisco bay to my average organic garden at rates of 2 to 4 lbs per square foot, crop yields increased two to four times in quantity with unmistakable flavour enrichment. Pole beans climbing out of prolific zucchini and tomato beds went to 18 feet before being turned back by the weight of heavy beans at the top.' Hamaker's mineralised corn crop turned out to have 57% more phosphorus, 90% more potassium, 47% more calcium and 60% more magnesium than chemically grown crops from the same seed. On Lanzerotte in the Canary Islands, vines have flourished in soil rich in volcanic rock. And now in the UK, interesting results are beginning to show from the experiments at Springhill Farm near Aylesbury, where they are working in conjunction with the Department of Chemistry at Surrey University - growing wheat in soil to which granite dust from a nearby quarry has been added.
'During an ice age, as glaciers grind rock to a fine dust over millennia, a fertile soil is created'
The movement in the States has an almost messianic note. Joanna Campe, editor of 'Soil Remineralisation', believes that 'the ultimate poverty is poverty of soil. The fate of the earth hangs in the balance.' Remineralisation will help avert a new ice age: 'During an ice age, as glaciers grind rock to a fine dust over millennia, a fertile soil is created. Adding finely ground gravel dust nourishes the micro-organisms in the soil, whose protoplasm is the basis of all life. Remineralisation can save the dying forests in the temperate latitudes. Otherwise, as forests begin to die off worldwide, giving off carbon dioxide, the climate of the earth is altered, triggering the transition from the warm interglacial to an ice age.' (Ed: An item in the Times also tells how increased amounts of greenhouse gases could also help cause a new ice age. Higher temperatures at the poles could cause more snow to fall, and cloudier summers will reduce the melting rate.)
Robert Schindele is even more extreme. He eats gravel dust, two teaspoons a day, and markets it in parts of Europe as a 'mineral dietary supplement' under the name 'Superbiomin' - despite heavy opposition from the German and Austrian pharmaceutical industry. 'For years my hair was as white as snow,' he says, 'but since I have been taking gravel dust, it is almost black again. Chronic diseases, especially gout, disappeared.'
He further claims that Superbiomin acts against radioactivity, 'breaking down the high oscillation rates of ionised particles, as confirmed by the Institute for atomic physics in the Ukraine.' Apparently after the Chernobyl accident, the Russians picked up 2000kg of Superbiomin with a military truck. 'I think this (gravel dust) discovery,' says Schindele, 'will be the biggest sensation of the century.'
Sources of information on this topic include:
- A video entitled 'Stopping the Coming Ice Age' is available for $45 (UK VHS version) from People for a Future, 2140 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA (tel 415 524 2700). For the UK, specify the VHS version in your order.
- Mrs Betsan Coats, PO Box 77, Cotton Treet, Old 4588, Australia (tel 071 444 361).
- Cameron Thomson, Hamaker Co-ordination, Scotaton Farm, Auchterhouse, Dundee, DD3 OQT, Scotland. He writes: 'My idea is for mobile rock grinders to go from farm to farm crushing stones, which are gathered anyway every year from our cultivated fields, and to incorporate the dust back into the soil.'
- Mrs Eirwen Harbottle, the London Centre for International Peacebuilding, Wickham House, 10 Cleveland Way, London E1 4TR (tel 071 790 2424) who is seeking schools prepared to help carry out long-term remineralisation experiments.
- 'Remineralise The Earth' Newsletter, edited by Joanna Campe, 152 South Street, Northampton, MA 01060, USA (tel 413 586 4429), $18 subs. Research packet also available, $20.
- Don Weaver and John Hamaker's book 'The Survival of Civilisation', $12 from Hamaker-Weaver Publishers, PO Box 1961, Burlingame, CA 94010, USA (tel 415 347 9693).
- Robert Schindele, A-3122 Gansbach-Kicking, Austria (tel 02753 289), who sells the rock dust as a dietary supplement, despite widespread doubts as to its efficacy.
- Springhall Farm (which is carrying out remineralisation experiments), Hugh Coates and Dr Nadia Coates, Dinton, near Aylesbury (tel 0296 748432).
- Harry Alderslade, 9 Walter's Row, Morrell Avenue, Oxford, OX4 1NT (tel 0865 240545), with an international network of remineralisation contacts.
- David Langley, Redlands Aggregate, Crosby, Leicestershire, LE6 OSA (tel 0530 242151). Redlands run a number of gravel pits, and have in the past supplied gravel dust free for remineralisation experiments.
- Re. a new ice age from the greenhouse gases, contact Ann de Vernal of the University of Quebec and Gifford Miller of the University of Colorado.
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