Are Plants Less Nutritious Than Before?

Are plants less nutritious these days?

It ends up, they are.

Before we learn about that, what determines how nutritious a piece of fruit or a salad is in the first place?

The nutritional value or mineral content of food crops is dependent on the following factors:

• Species genetics
• Climate
• Soil health
• Soil microbe diversity
• Soil management practices
• The degree of ripeness at harvest time

Several decades ago, our fruits and vegetables contained significantly more nutrients than they do today. We have traded quality for quantity, becoming overfed and undernourished, something we cannot continue indefinitely.

So, how did it happen? And what can we do about it?

Primarily, it comes down to soil depletion. Modern agriculture grows so much, so fast that the soil does not have time to recover. We may add nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and secondary nutrients, but soil health isn't that simple.

There is an astounding chemical, electrical, and biological dance that happens underground to make plants (and people) healthy. The more chemicals we use, the less likely the soil is to produce healthy crops.

A study published in 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition at the University of Texas at Austin noted “reliable declines” of the nutrients in our food plants over the previous 50 years. Donald Davis and his team pointed out that produce has been grown with an eye for appearance, disease and pest resistance, productivity, and shelf stability over nutrition for a long time. For too long, in my opinion.

Other studies have demonstrated similar reductions in nutritional value:

• Calcium: 16-46%
• Copper: 20-76%
• Iron: 22-50%
• Magnesium: 10-24%
• Potassium: 14-19%
• Vitamin A: 21%
• Vitamin C: 30%
• Zinc: 27-59%

As noted in the Scientific American article Dirt Poor, you would have to eat eight oranges to get the same amount of vitamin A that your grandparents got from a single orange in their childhood.

So what can we do?

We can start by not encouraging poor agricultural practices. Do a little homework. What sort of reputation does the company growing your lettuce actually have? If they treat their workers poorly, they probably treat the soil even worse.

When shopping for produce, buy organic. Organic farmers meet stringent assessments that ensure they are not using or exposing our food to potentially harmful chemicals. Even if those chemicals can’t hurt us, they do harm the beneficial insects and microorganisms necessary for healthy soil.

And don’t buy more than you need. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Americans waste an average of one pound of food each day, or 30-40% of the total food supply. This waste costs a family of four $2,275 each year.

Finally, grow what you can at home using integrated pest management and other least damaging methods.

When planning your garden, keep the following tips in mind:

• Opt for cereals, fruits, and vegetables that are nutrient-dense, rather than energy-dense.
• Select plant varieties that are suited to your microclimate.
• Compost.

As I said earlier, we still do not fully understand the complexities of soil health. We can help improve soil health by reducing our interference and boosting biodiversity in our landscapes. Remember that soil needs time to rest. It needs to go through natural cycles. We need to give our garden patches permission to go fallow for a season.

It might be good for us to take a breather now and then, too.