Alien Base: The Evidence for Extraterrestrial Colonization of Earth: FOOD
Occasionally, Menger was asked to bring food for the space people. They asked mainly for frozen fruit juices, canned fruit and vegetables, whole wheat bread, wheat germ and the like. They refused to drink milk, avoided fresh oranges, lemons and grapefruit. They preferred tree-ripened fruit when I could find it . . . I remember one time I bought five bushels of tree-ripened apples from a local orchard. They tested the apples and found the mineral and vitamin content much lower than similar fruits of their planets. This was due, they said, to our poor soil. They explained that chemical fertilizers were not the correct answer to the problem . . . because they did not replenish the organic materials our soil sadly lacks.
While chemical fertilizers have widely been regarded as unhealthy for many years, it should be pointed out that this was not the prevalent view in 1959, when the above information was published in Menger’s first book, From Outer Space to You.
He continued:
Most of the time they brought their own food, in a dried, preserved state. I sampled some of it and while it was tasty, it was hard and dry. I tasted other food which was delicious. They had put the dry foods through some sort of processing which returned the moisture and at the same time expanded it to its natural size and state. I ate one of their tubers which was far superior in protein and mineral content than any vegetable we now have. We could grow the same here, they said, if our soil were healthy . .