1) What does LD50 mean?
LD stands for "Lethal Dose". LD50 is the amount of a material, given all at once, which causes the death of 50% (one half) of a group of test animals. The LD50 is one way to measure the short-term poisoning potential (acute toxicity) of a material.
So a group of researchers were doing LD 50 studies with Lead, Mercury, Cadmium and other toxins. They had figured out just how much Lead would kill 50% of the rats. How much Mercury would kill 50% of the Rats. How much Cadmium would kill 50% of the rats.
They decided to see how these toxic metals would affect the rats if combined. They took 50 new rats and fed an LD 50 of Lead and an LD 50 of Mercury. ALL 50 rats died. They had to drop down to an LD 50 of Lead and 1/20th of an LD 50 of Mercury before they had fewer than 50 dead rats (all of the rats). Multiplication of 50 million unique substances in our environment in the last 75 years . . . geometric multiplication???
2) Researchers in the 90's found that for every dollar you spent on nutritional supplements you saved $40 over your life on pharmaceuticals. (Steve says, those buying supplements were/are aware that those things are lacking in modern food.)
3) Back in finance in college (72-76) I was told that a dollar deposited in a local bank (good luck finding one of those today) multiplied seven times in the local community.
4) Regenerative agriculture produces clean, mineral-rich food . . . all-the-while rebuilding our soils, sequestering carbon and rain. People eat to get vitamins, minerals and enzymes. The more of those things are in our food: 1) the better it tastes, 2) the more nutritious it is, 3) and the fewer bites we have to take every day to get what our bodies require. "Count chemicals, not calories" as the saying goes.
So what would it look like if we combined these all together? Grew nutrient-rich foods and detoxed what was blowing onto our land, sold those nutrient-rich foods to our neighbors (saving $40/$1 spent) and then deposited the money in our local bank (multiplying 7 times). Then take into account people eating less!
Probably not directly multiplicative in my thought process, however that math is $280 back into the local community.
