What's This About?

The shift in American agriculture from self-sufficiency to industrial dependence is a story of trading long-term soil health for short-term yield. Here is a brief history of that transition and the current state of our food system.

In the early 1900s, a significant portion of the American population were farmers who practiced diversified agriculture. However, the push for massive production led to the over-plowing of the Great Plains. By the 1930s, this "working the land too hard," combined with severe drought, resulted in the Dust Bowl. We lost millions of tons of topsoil—the living "skin" of the earth—to the wind, a biological disaster that forever changed how we viewed land management.

Following World War II, the industrial infrastructure used for explosives was repurposed to create synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.

• The Soda Pop Parallel: Much like soda provides a quick "sugar high" but lacks real nutrition, synthetic fertilizers provide plants with a "chemical high" ($N-P-K$) that makes them grow fast and look large, but bypasses the natural soil biology.
• Victory Gardens: During the World Wars, nearly 40% of American produce was grown in backyard Victory Gardens. These gardeners relied on compost, rotations, and "old world" wisdom to feed their families nutrient-dense food without chemical crutches.

As the soil became a mere "holding tank" for chemicals rather than a living ecosystem, the nutritional value of the crops plummeted.

Nutrient Average Decline since 1950

Calcium~16%

Iron~9%

Vitamin C~20%

Riboflavin~38%

Today’s store-bought produce is often "empty calories." Even the "Organic" label is no longer a guarantee of quality; if organic crops are grown in depleted soil using only organic-approved "inputs" rather than true regenerative practices, they still lack the mineral complexity of food grown 75 years ago.

To get back to nutrient-dense food, the focus must shift from "feeding the plant" to re-animating the soil. When the soil is teeming with microbial life, it unlocks minerals that synthetics simply cannot provide, resulting in food that is medicine rather than just a commodity.

The Discovery: The "Nutrient Gap" in the Kitchen

At the peak of his culinary career, Keven Haygood wasn't just training chefs and restaurants about food; he was analyzing. He noticed a persistent anomaly: two identical crates of heirloom produce, sourced from different suppliers, would behave and taste fundamentally differently under the same flame.

Being a new father at the time also wanted to better understand what he was feeding his children. 

The "Aha!" moment came when he began cross-referencing modern agricultural data with historical benchmarks. He made a startling discovery: Modern produce is a hollowed-out version of its ancestors. On average, a single tomato from our grandparents' era contained significantly more mineral density than the industrial versions of today. The flavor wasn't "lost"—it was starved out of existence.

The Lab: A Lifetime of Trial and Error

Keven, his own land became his primary research station. For years, his gardens served as a living laboratory for Applied Soil Microbiology. It was a cycle of study, trial again. He wasn't looking for a "quick fix" or a bottled fertilizer; he was looking for the biological "source code." Through thousands of hours of observation—analyzing how bugs, microbes, fungus, and bacteria reacted to changes in sun, wind, and rain—he moved past "gardening" and into Systems Engineering. He tested every variable of the "soil food web" until he could consistently replicate the nutrient-dense results he had discovered were missing from the modern world.

The Deep Dive: From the Grill to the Microscope

Driven by the need to deliver the absolute best food for his family to the plate, Keven realized that "Sourcing" was no longer enough. To solve the flavor crisis, he had to go to the source of life itself. He merged his lifelong hands-on experience with an intensive study of the disciplines that bridge the gap between "Dirt" and "Nutrient-Dense and Delicious":

• Secondary Metabolite Synthesis: Discovering that the complex nutrients, aromas, and flavors we crave are actually the plant's own immune system, which only activates when the soil biology is thriving.
• Micro-Climate Optimization: Learning to treat wind, rain,      and sun as metabolic inputs that, when managed correctly, create a "Living Soil" able to support life perpetually.
• Corrective Pedology: Moving from theoretical dirt to functional, living ecosystems that require zero synthetic interference.

I am a huge supporter of local farmers and growers, but more importantly, the health and nutrition of you and your family.

I am here if you have questions. Thanks,