Trends in food production

[Tim Harrigan]

I thought this was an interesting opinion on changes in the nutritional value of food over time.

[dominiquer60]

It is interesting Tim.

Food used to be denser in nutrients, so in theory we didn’t need to eat as much as we do now for the same amount of nutrition. Though plant genetics play a big part in nutrient density, there are so many other factors. Soil vs hydroponic and Conventional vs. Organic. I can’t find the paper now but I recall a study comparing the nutrient densities of various crops from various areas, some were organic, some were conventional. High quality soils produced the most nutrient dense crops, but in the same/similar soil organic practices came out ahead a little. And Hydroponic, don’t get me started, i just don’t see how a liquid system can beat soil microbes at delivering what a plant needs and wants to thrive AND have nutrient dense foods. Plants and soil microbes have a relationship that has taken eons to develop, we can’t expect to come in and replicate such a system.

Anyway, there is so much that we could improve upon with our food system, it looks like having more nutrient dense food (though breeding and soil health) would leave to us using less water and eating less to get the nutrients that we need.

[near horse]

I read the article too and the author sort of plays with the terms so to speak. Starch and sugars are nutrients so claiming that we’ve decreased nutrients in lieu of starch or sugar isn’t really true – we’ve reduced one nutrient for another (perhaps). In nutrition, even water in your food is considered to be a nutrient.

That said, I do think that the quality of our fresh fruits and vegetables has been diminished but think it is likely the result of trying to speed maturity/growth, increase shelf-life and improve the durability of the produce for long distance transport. As the apple researcher here in WA state said “we’ve taken the Red Delicious apple and kept it red but it’s certainly not delicious anymore.”

[oxspan]

I received a great seed catalog this winter from http://www.rareseeds.com/ . There’s much to learn just from reading their catalog.

[Author]

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