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November 2001 - Vol. 31, No. 11- Page 1

by David Yarrow

n the early ages of our planet, waterdissolved minerals from crystal bed-

rock, washing them into a vast ocean. Rainand ice scoured the infant orb’s dense gran-ites and then flowed into streams and riv-ers, which all ran together into the sea.Minerals in endless flowing solution accu-mulated in the ocean over many millennia.

Sea salt has all the elements needed forlife. Over countless years, land has beenworn down by wind and water, and ele-ments washed out to sea. Thus, the sea re-ceived the enormous chemical richness andbalance that once supported life on land.

So, when we savor the flavor of food,our fundamental seasoning is salt — thesea its original source. Natural sea salt is afaint gray-green, with soft, complex crys-tal structures, but today’s table salt is onlysodium — pure white cubic crystals ofchloride. All other seawater elements havebeen refined — removed and taken out.Gone is the iron; lost are potassium, calci-um and magnesium, as well as more minorminerals and trace elements than we canyet measure.

MID-CENTURYSCIENCE BIONEER

Dr. Maynard Murray was a pioneer inbiology, health and agriculture. His lifelongquest taught him that the key to health is asecret in soil, a secret whose source is thesea. A medical scientist, he recognized ev-idence of an all-encompassing unity for lifeon Earth. His inspiration came from hisstudy of the ocean.

In 1947, Murray began a 25-year medi-cal career, specializing in ear, nose andthroat. Experiences with patients arousedhis concern for the quality of life. WhileAmericans lived longer, medical practicerevealed they weren’t living better. Chron-ic illness and degenerative disease slowlybut steadily increased.

Pointedly, he wrote, “Americans holdthe dubious distinction of being among thesickest of populations in modern society,”adding, “A nation with a drug industryflourishing as well as ours certainly can-not claim good health!”

I

FIRST CLUEAs a university student, Murray had tried

to induce cancer in a toad. He was aston-ished to learn that the amphibian had natu-ral immunity. He sought answers in oceananimals rather than freshwater and landanimals. Time and money was spent trav-eling to study and dissect sea life fromSouth America to the Pribilof Islands.

“A cubic foot of seawater sustains manytimes more living organisms than an equiv-alent of soil,” he noted. “Seawater is liter-ally alive, especially if its temperature iswarm.”

Murray sliced openwhales and autopsied dol-phins and marine mam-mals searching for organ-ic degeneration, but he sawlittle sickness in the sea.Ocean animals, he discovered, did not de-velop the degenerative diseases that plagueman: “Looking at ocean life, one is imme-diately impressed that in this 71 percent ofearth’s surface, there is no cancer, harden-ing of arteries, or arthritis. Disease resis-

tance in sea plants and animals differs re-markably from land animals. Ocean troutdon’t develop cancer, while freshwater troutover five years have liver cancer. It’s diffi-cult to find any land species without can-cer. All land animals develop arterioscle-rosis, yet sea animals are never diagnosedwith this.”

Murray noted that aging hardly occursin the sea. Comparing cells from adult vs.newborn whales showed no evidence of thechemical changes observed in land mam-mal cells. Some sea denizens seem to nev-

er cease growing. Com-paring the sizes of land vs.sea turtles reveals the tre-mendous difference.

IT’S LOGICALMurray pondered over

what could impart this apparent immunityto sea animals. Was it a nutritional factor?Was it caused by minerals, or some morecomplex chemical factor?

Simple reasoning reveals that mineralsin soil leach out with rain and snow, flow-

Sea Energy in AgricultureRenewing the Soil with Sea Solids

Cutline

“A cubic foot of seawater sustains manytimes more living organisms than anequivalent of soil.”

— Dr. Maynard Murray

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November 2001 - Vol. 31, No. 11- Page 1

ing into oceans via streams and rivers —the land’s mineral fertility winds up wash-ing into the seas. Minerals lost from landaccumulated in the sea for millennia. Thisprogression suggests that seawater miner-als are key nutrients responsible for the heathof sea life.

“Seawater is Earth’s most ancient natu-ral solution,” Murray said, “and, in my opin-ion, most ideal, physiologically. In the sea,as liquid crystalloid, all Atomic Table ele-ments are in a solution of consistent balanceand proportion, available to all sea life.”

Murray noticed the elements in seawa-ter are essentially the same as in blood, andvery close to the same quantities. Thisseemed no coincidence, but a true clue tothe role of minerals in health. Might min-eral deficiency be a significant cause ofdegenerative disease? If humans get a fullmenu of minerals, will our physiologic dis-orders decline?

But how could humans assimilate thesenecessary nutrients? Drinking seawaterisn’t possible — humans aren’t designedto ingest minerals as salts, or rocks, for thatmatter. Our guts can’t absorb elements inraw, naked, ionic forms. Rather, humanintestines need minerals to be packagedwith sugars, amino acids, fats, oils.

“Table salt is the only food we eat that’sinorganic,” Murray noted, “and frankly, itisn’t good for us.” He summed up his the-sis: “Ocean waters hold a perfect balanceof essential elements required as food forthe complex cell groups that make up ourbodies.”

SEAWATER INTO SOILAs a first step to learning how to supply

minerals to humans, Murray realized thatwe get our minerals primarily from food,but that water is the second most impor-tant source. He decided to use seawater asa soil amendment, and observe whether thisprovided any benefit. Perhaps if soil is sup-plied with all essential minerals, plants willabsorb them as nutrients and pass them onto the animals that eat them.

In Murray’s first trials, the U.S. Navysupplied seawater from oceans all over theworld. Railroad tank cars delivered seawa-ter to Cincinnati, which was sprayed at var-ious controlled rates onto test plots.

In 1940, four 12-foot peach trees wereplanted 20 feet apart. Two of them, desig-nated experimental, were treated with 600cc. of seawater per square foot, before thebuds broke; the other two acted as controls,receiving no application.

Murray recalled: “All four trees weresprayed with Curly Leaf virus. The test last-ed three years. Virus spraying took placeonly the first year. Control trees contractedCurly Leaf each year, and finally died. Ex-perimentals retained resistance throughout,and provided normal yields each year.”

Turnips were planted the same year, theexperimental half fertilized with 600 cc. ofseawater per square foot of soil. Staphylo-coccus bacteria associated with “center rot”was mixed into the soil of the entire plot.When turnips sprouted and leaves ap-peared, they were sprayed with the bacte-ria. All experimentals grew normal, healthy,no evidence of center rot. Controls contract-ed center rot and died. Similar results oc-curred with every crop Murray tested.

SEA SOLIDSAll the solids in one railroad tank car of

seawater hardly fill a steel drum. By weight,3.5 percent of seawater is made up of solids.Seawater is cheap, but water is heavy and thuscostly to transport, so Murray began usingsea solids: salts and other chemicals. Elimi-nating the water so that only the solids re-mained made transport economical, and sol-ids were easier to apply to soils.

He wrote, “We looked worldwide for nat-ural locations where seawater becomes land-locked, and total evaporation takes place. . . .This complete spectrum of elements from thesea we designated sea solids.”

Rain falling on sea salts drying in open-air beds dissolves heavier metals and traceelements first. Minerals that go in solutionquickest wash away faster than light min-erals. After a few rainwater washings, seasalt has far more sodium, and far fewer traceelements. Murray searched for sources ofsea sediments that were subject to minimalrainfall and leaching. Southwest Africa;Arabia; Baja, California; and northernChile are all arid areas where rain is rare.There, ocean waters swell up at high tidesinto beachside lagoons. These pools dryout, leaving behind theminerals. Murray believedthat these desert depositsretained all of seawater’soriginal elements in near-ly the same ratios.

Over the course ofmore than 20 years, Murray tested sea sol-ids on various crops in seven states and indifferent climates. Experiments indicatedthat land plants tolerate 400 to 1000 cc. ofseawater to 1/3 cubic foot of soil. Sea sol-ids were administered to soil at 500 to as

much as 3,000 pounds per acre. Exceptingcases of serious rainwater runoff, one ap-plication would last five years.

Corn, wheat, oats, barley, hay, fruit trees,vegetable crops and other plants were raisedusing seawater or sea solids. Fields wereplanted so that an experimental plot usingsea solids (applied at 1,000 to 2,200 poundsper acre) was situated beside a control plotusing the best commercial method. Cropsfertilized with sea solids grew faster, werehealthier, and produced far greater growth.Resulting color, disease resistance, tasteand yield were outstanding.

Animals, wild and domestic, had notrouble determining which crop was betterto eat. A walk through one of the fields fer-tilized with sea solids revealed a glimpseof animal heaven. Rabbits and mice scur-ried everywhere, yet a control area withstandard fertilizers was almost lifeless.

In the 1950s, Murray began assayingcrops for nutrients. Consistently, foodsgrown using sea solids had significantlymore minerals (ash content), vitamins (25percent more vitamin C in tomatoes; 40 per-cent more vitamin A in carrots) and sugars.

PRINCIPLE OF PROPORTION“From the start,” Murray recorded, “my

sea solids experiments produced excellentresults. It conclusively proves the propor-tions of trace minerals and elements presentin sea water are optimum for growth andhealth of both land and sea life.”

Growers quickly criticize Murray, insist-ing that salt will kill plants as quick as anypesticide or poison. This is true of table salt,but Murray found that if sodium is blend-ed with all of the other elements in the sameratios as in seawater, plants aren’t injured— instead, they thrive.

Murray learned a key principle: each es-sential element must be present in certainprecise proportions relative to the others.

“Tomatoes serve as example of this needfor balance,” he explained, “Tomato grow-

ers know potassium has amajor function in plantgrowth. Potassium is add-ed to soil in quantity bygrowers. Yet the tomato it-self has only a minoramount of potassium.

“My experiments proved conclusively asmall amount of potassium, as in its properbalance in seawater, grows unusually healthy,outstanding tomatoes. It’s unnecessary to fer-tilize heavily with one element if an adequatebalance of elements is available.”

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To evaluate qualitative effects, the totalamount of minerals is less critical than theproper ratios among them. Individually, onemineral in excess can be toxic and make oth-er elements seem to be in deficit. Blendedin balance with all the elements in seawater,they enhance and enliven each other.

TRACE ELEMENTS:LEAST AS MOST

In Murray’s time, knowledge of traceelements was minimal. Only twenty ele-ments were known to have specific rolesin human physiology. Several more wereknown to benefit plants and animals. Heavymetals were suspected of positive roles.Even poisonous elements (e.g., arsenic)were beneficial if ingested in organic form,and in trace amounts. Only nine trace ele-ments were listed in “Recommended Di-etary Allowances,” and few enzymes hadtheir trace elements identified, yet thou-sands of enzymes were identified. Un-doubtedly, many more enzyme and traceelement functions remain to be described.

So, while Murray could write little ontrace elements, he grasped how the leastcan exert the most influence. An elementneeded in micrograms or less can have dra-matic biologic effects by activating en-zymes and hormones. Murray knew that weneed all of the elements available, not a fewin excess amounts.

SEAPONICSMurray realized that farmland is a lim-

ited resource and came to believe that hy-droponics was humanity’s best bet to ex-pand food production. He beganexperiments with this method in his cellarto supply his family with year-round freshproduce. Later, he collaborated in this re-search with commercial-scale growers. In1958, he bought a Florida farm and becamea commercial grower, with 178 beds, each100 feet by 4 feet.

About 112 pounds of dried, natural seasolids were dissolved in up to 10,000 gal-lons of water. The only fertilizer that exper-imental crops received was this solution ofsea solids (and sometimes nitrogen), whichbathed their roots a few times each day.

In a typical test, tomatoes were planted afoot apart in 3-foot by 100-foot hydroponicbeds. The beds were flooded with the nutri-ent solution, which was then drawn out andreturned to a tank three times a day. Exper-imental beds received 112 pounds of seasolids to 5,000 gallons of water; controlsreceived conventional hydroponic solution.

Tobacco Mosaic Virus, lethal to toma-toes, was sprayed on all plants. Experimen-tals didn’t contract the disease, while allthe controls died. In trial after trial, sea sol-ids seemed to confer greatly enhanced dis-ease resistance — near immunity.

Murray asserted, “All essential nutrientscan be supplied in proper proportions by asingle dilute solution of seawater, plus ni-trogen. Dissolving complete sea solids infresh water formed dilute solutions of 1,000to 8,000 parts per million.”

Eventually, he operated a successfulfive-acre hyroponic farm in south Florida,growing tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, cel-ery and other produce in intensive beds.Because he grew superior yielding cropsof healthy, tasty, disease-free plants, mar-ket demand for his crops was high, and hisfarm very profitable.

“My experiments proved adequate sup-plies of food can be developed if man re-cycles the sea,” insisted Murray.

ANIMAL TESTINGMurray’s most remarkable tests were

trials feeding animals with foods grownusing sea solids. Cattle feeding behaviorprovoked his excitement. Corn grown onthis fertilized soil was marked by wrappingtape around a stalk, which was then mixedwith conventional cornstalks and dumpedin a pasture.

Astonished, Murray recalled, “As ani-mals munched away, immediately they pre-ferred sea-solid stalks. After once samplingan experimental stalk, animals would nuz-zle and burrow the pile to find another, ig-noring control stalks until they had no oth-er choice.”

In further proof that animal instinctknows best, Murray treated a 100-square-foot section of clover with sea solids. Whenthe clover was 6 inches tall, sheep wereallowed to graze. They walked and grazeduntil they came to the treated spot, then ateuntil the clover within the treated area wasnubbed to the ground.

Results urged larger,elaborate study of animalfeeding. Murray designeda series of trials with vari-ous feed grains and typesof animals. Working withseveral farmers, he devoted years to study-ing the benefits of sea solid-fertilized feeds.

He reported, “In 1954, three staple feeds— corn, oats and soybeans — were grown,and subsequently fed to animals under con-trolled conditions: four parts corn, two oats,

one soy. Not only were experimental cropssuperior, but effects on animal physiologyand pathology were delightfully amazing.”

Feeding experiments with cattle showedgreater weight-gain after eating less exper-imental feed. Chickens were particularlypartial to sea solid-grown feeds; they grewmore quickly, hens produced more andlarger eggs sooner, and at slaughter theirmeat was of better quality.

Murray wrote, “Chickens, pigs and cat-tle fed sea solids produce reached maturitysooner than controls, and resisted diseasescommon to their species better. Experimen-tal pigs carried benefits into a second gen-eration; there were no runts in litters.”

CANCER:NUTRITION OR GENES?

Murray’s most astonishing tests werewith lab mice: “A first animal experimentwas on C3H mice, which get spontaneouscancer of the breast. We hoped sea solids-grown food could build resistance to thevirus or cancer.

“C3H mice were divided in two groups.Controls were fed regular cereal grain,while experimentals were fed cereal grainraised on sea solids-treated soil.

“Instead of cancer in 90 percent of con-trols, experimental animals’ rate droppedto 55 percent. Second generations born toparents fed sea solids food had cancer inonly 2 percent of the population!”

This single experiment caused Murrayto reconsider the conventional causes at-tributed to this dread disease. He repeatedhis experiment in variations. Each time, seasolid-fertilized feed seemed to impart re-sistance, perhaps immunity, to cancer.

NUTRITION-DEFICIENCYDISEASES

Murray faced facts compiled in experi-ment after experiment, and realized thatnutrient deficiencies are a key element con-tributing to degenerative diseases: “My re-

search clearly indicatesAmericans lack completephysiological chemistrybecause balanced, essen-tial elements of soil haveeroded to the sea; conse-quently, crops are nutri-

tionally poor, and animals eating theseplants are, therefore, nutritionally poor.

“Minerals have departed from our soilsdue to continuous taking of crops and ero-sion. Most crops require forty elementsfrom the soil. In no case do fertilizers add

more than twelve, most add six.”Unlike technicians who see only their

own small problem, Murray’s lifelong workwith oceans, farmers, hydroponics andmedicine gave him a broad view. He rec-ognized that a new pill won’t resolve thereal problem. Only addressing the rootsource can relieve disease. Murray correct-ly saw agriculture as the real root cause,and called for changes, not in medicine, butin farming and food processing.

SEA ENERGY AGRICULTUREIn 1976, Murray published a small book

titled Sea Energy Agriculture — a remark-able testimony to a natural approach to soilfertility, and a nutritional approach to med-icine. Murray wrote hopefully, believing hehad important news to report: “This is mylifelong search to open doors to a provoca-tive new arena of science and technologycalled sea energy agriculture. . . . Quitepossibly this could lead to the end of dis-ease and famine.”

Murray’s one chapter on organic farm-ing reveals weak insight into ecology — aprevalent shortcoming in his day. He be-lieved that plants feed directly on inorgan-ic ions in watery soil solution — no matterwhether a nutrient was natural (organic) orman-made (synthetic).

The physician knew little of how bacte-ria, fungi and microbes affect plant feed-ing — that roots and soil organisms formintimate communities, wedded together in

tight symbiotic dependencies. Actually, themedical doctor saw microbes mostly asunfriendly and dangerous.

Nonetheless, Murray’s conclusionstates: “Today’s organic farmers realize agiant commercial farmer, specializing inone crop, using only chemical fertilizer, isdestroying soil’s ability to produce food.If this continues, soil will be ruined andlost through erosion. To prevent this, andreclaim soil already destroyed, organicfarming must be used.”

Thus, Murray cast his lot with the tinyminority to challenge the chemical ortho-doxy of his times. Like every other smallvoice of reason, he was ignored in the pet-rochemical rush to pump up yield with syn-thetics.

Murray’s conclusion also states, “Re-search reported is in the nature of pilotprojects. Tremendous further researchneeds to be done to render conclusive theappealing results and provocative trendsindicated to date.”

The book ends with Murray musing onthe human implications of his findings. Hecautioned against extrapolating his obser-vations into human nutrition and health, yetrecognized it to be a key issue of our time— a key to renewing America’s soil, foodand health:

“For man to continue to live on earth,he must make fundamental changes. Hemust look to oceans as a source of neededelements. These elements must be returnedto soil so better quality, more healthfulfoods can be produced.

“Man must stop destroying soil. Thisrequires basic changes in our agriculturalsystem. Large commercial farms probablymust be broken up and small regional farmsusing organic methods take their place.

“We have the means and ability to makethese changes. We need now only the de-sire.”

Yet, Murray’s voice fell on deaf ears.The narrow chemical mindset of his timecouldn’t embrace views differing fromdominant paradigms. His data on nutritionand disease, soil minerals and food quali-ty, and trace elements and health were lost,his warning to renew all the minerals need-ed in topsoil, ignored.

Dr. Maynard Murray was fond of say-ing, “Nature can teach us so much, if wewould only listen.” He died in 1984, notsure whether his message had been heardor understood.

A quarter of a century has passed sinceSea Energy Agriculture was published.

Acres U.S.A. is the national journalof sustainable agriculture, standing virtually

alone with a real track record — over 30years of continuous publication. Each issue is

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Perhaps the time has arrived for the insightsof this 20th century bioneer to be recog-nized and put to proper use. Certainly theneed has never been greater.

For more information about Dr. May-nard Murray, including excerpts from SeaEnergy Agriculture, visit the website<www.championtrees.org/ topsoi l /seaponics.htm>