Cabbage and other brassica crops can be devastated by clubroot. But application of boron reduces the onset of clubroot symptoms and helps protects crop yields to a significant degree.
Animals and vegetables are alike in at least one important way: They both need minerals to survive. People didn't know about mineral nutrients such as boron when they first started growing crops more than 10,000 years ago. Now we know that macronutrients and micronutrients are essential.