Diluted Seawater in Farming

The general public is slowly becoming aware of some of the health benefits of antioxidants.

The good news is that according to a new study by a group of Italian scientists published in the ACS Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

In this study, the Italian scientists watered one group of cherry tomatoes using freshwater. Another group of cherry tomatoes was watered with a solution of diluted (12%) seawater. The scientists found that the cherry tomatoes grown using the diluted seawater had much higher levels of antioxidants (like vitamin C, vitamin E, dihydrolipoic acid, and chlorogenic acid) than the cherry tomatoes grown using freshwater.

Some people may be thinking that this news isn't such a big deal, but nothing could be further from the truth. Right now, the world is facing an unprecedented global water shortage.

Incidentally, the Italian scientists that conducted the study using diluted seawater and cherry tomatoes aren't the first ones to study using seawater to grow more nutritious plants. In 1976, a man named Dr. Maynard Murray published an outstanding book called Sea Energy Agriculture. Dr. Murray wanted to find out why sea life, both animal and vegetable, was healthier than life on land. In his book, he gives an example about how when one compares the cells of a baby whale to an adult whale.

He even did experiments where he fed animals plants that had been fertilized with solids made with evaporated seawater and found that those animals were far healthier and lived longer than animals that were fed in the traditional way.