Today people want "clean" vegetables, so farmers grow them in hothouses without using soil at all. Gravel culture, sand culture, and hydroponics are getting more popular all the time. The vegetables are grown with chemical nutrients and by light, which is filtered through a vinyl covering. It is strange that people have come to think of these vegetables grown chemically as "clean" and safe to eat. Foods grown in soil balanced by the action of worms, microorganisms, and decomposing animal manure are the cleanest and most wholesome of all.
Masanobu Fukuoka
