Rurumo
Well-Known Member
Hello all,
Have you guys ever seen the little disclaimer on a bottle of nutes that says something like "heavy metal content listed on aapfco.org?" Well, I finally decided to go there and then they direct you to one of the state databases, which basically have all the same numbers https://apps1.cdfa.ca.gov/fertilizerproducts/. Out of sheer curiosity I started looking up all of the nutrients I use and have used in the past, as well as the more popular current brands, and some of the numbers were shocking. First of all, the numbers they provide are in PPM-parts per million-and to be honest, there is no safe amount of cadmium in PPM-it should be ND-not detectable. I would also say the same thing about arsenic, though that one is a little tricky since a lot of inorganic arsenic is more or less bound up and harmless....BUT....there is still no excuse to have ANY in a fertilizer product. Allowing any detectable amounts of these heavy metals, which have built up to dangerous levels in American farm soils over the past 70 years, is inexcusable, and due to sheer corporate greed and or apathy. There is a recent study linking the cadmium levels now common in American farmland to various cancers-the link between brassica crops, which really love to suck up the cadmium, and breast cancer is particularly strong.
What really irritates me is when a company like JR Peters who makes the Jack's nutrients, claim that their products are free of heavy metals as a major selling point, then you go and look them up and they actually have above average levels of arsenic and cadmium. Rather than list the products that are loaded with these, I'll give you a few that I've used in the past, and now will certainly use again, that have no detectable levels of arsenic and cadmium-Age Old Grow, Bloom, and Sweet Finish, Dyna Gro Foliage Pro (that one surprised me), a few other Dyna Gro products, and Neptune's Harvest Fish formula-that's it. Those are the only arsenic and cadmium free "primary" nutrients that I've used, or could find, that had no detectable levels of arsenic and cadmium. There are plenty of seaweed, micro nutrient, and fulvic type products that fit the bill too.
How concerned should you be about this? Probably not very. For me it's more about the principle of the thing. These companies could easily sell us heavy metal free products, that don't build up in our bodies and our soil year after year, and still make a profit...but instead they choose not to. Instead, they buy even cheaper, tainted, raw materials just to incrementally pad their profit margins. And the one's that choose to blatantly lie about it, like JR Peters, should be called out on their BS. If you care about this topic at all, send your favorite nutrient companies an email and let them know it's important to you.
Ruru
Have you guys ever seen the little disclaimer on a bottle of nutes that says something like "heavy metal content listed on aapfco.org?" Well, I finally decided to go there and then they direct you to one of the state databases, which basically have all the same numbers https://apps1.cdfa.ca.gov/fertilizerproducts/. Out of sheer curiosity I started looking up all of the nutrients I use and have used in the past, as well as the more popular current brands, and some of the numbers were shocking. First of all, the numbers they provide are in PPM-parts per million-and to be honest, there is no safe amount of cadmium in PPM-it should be ND-not detectable. I would also say the same thing about arsenic, though that one is a little tricky since a lot of inorganic arsenic is more or less bound up and harmless....BUT....there is still no excuse to have ANY in a fertilizer product. Allowing any detectable amounts of these heavy metals, which have built up to dangerous levels in American farm soils over the past 70 years, is inexcusable, and due to sheer corporate greed and or apathy. There is a recent study linking the cadmium levels now common in American farmland to various cancers-the link between brassica crops, which really love to suck up the cadmium, and breast cancer is particularly strong.
What really irritates me is when a company like JR Peters who makes the Jack's nutrients, claim that their products are free of heavy metals as a major selling point, then you go and look them up and they actually have above average levels of arsenic and cadmium. Rather than list the products that are loaded with these, I'll give you a few that I've used in the past, and now will certainly use again, that have no detectable levels of arsenic and cadmium-Age Old Grow, Bloom, and Sweet Finish, Dyna Gro Foliage Pro (that one surprised me), a few other Dyna Gro products, and Neptune's Harvest Fish formula-that's it. Those are the only arsenic and cadmium free "primary" nutrients that I've used, or could find, that had no detectable levels of arsenic and cadmium. There are plenty of seaweed, micro nutrient, and fulvic type products that fit the bill too.
How concerned should you be about this? Probably not very. For me it's more about the principle of the thing. These companies could easily sell us heavy metal free products, that don't build up in our bodies and our soil year after year, and still make a profit...but instead they choose not to. Instead, they buy even cheaper, tainted, raw materials just to incrementally pad their profit margins. And the one's that choose to blatantly lie about it, like JR Peters, should be called out on their BS. If you care about this topic at all, send your favorite nutrient companies an email and let them know it's important to you.
Ruru
