An important question was recently asked by a member of the MittleiderMethodGardening@yahogroups.com group.
He asked “Has any type of testing ever been done on the MM produce? Just curious as I am just learning about the MM and putting in my first garden this year.” Ron
One memorable “test” of the quality of Mittleider Method-grown produce that I believe everyone will benefit from learning about is a situation that took place in Russia in 1989, when Jacob first went there to set up an Agriculture Program in a small newly established Adventist college in Zaokski – about 2 hours from
Moscow.
It was still the USSR at that time, and they were very suspicious of this American. They were just SURE he was doing something to hurt the Russian people.
Their Agriculture Agents came several times to the gardens and “stole” his beautiful healthy-looking plants, in order to test them for nitrate toxicity, etc.
After doing this several times some of the Agriculture Department scientists came to Jacob and admitted what they have been doing. They said that not only was there no toxicity in any of the plants they tested, but that Jacob’s plants were the healthiest they had ever seen.
They wanted to know all about what he was doing, and how he managed to get such healthy vegetables. Jacob was happy to teach them.
The Communists ended up sending some of the graduating students from Timorjasjev (sp), their most prestigious Agriculture University, to Jacob’s 3 month-long intensive training classes, and some of those students said “we learned more about growing
food in 3 months than we did in 5 years at the University”.
The government also for several years gave formal Certificates from that University to the graduates of Jacob’s classes.
They honored Jacob with a PhD from Timorjasjev, and they made him the featured speaker at the Yalta Conference of Agriculture Ministers.
And the Agriculture Minister went on their national television and announced that “The only food grown in Russia that’s fit to eat is grown in a Mittleider garden.”
