Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[<activism98201@verizon.net>]

I don't discount the obvious, but there are some things in this article that 
I find to be problematic.  It could be just me, but I figured that I'd see 
what others found.


-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA


Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/331421_bigfood13.html

As giant crops flourish, vitamins, minerals and taste disappear

By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
P-I SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

When it comes to eating fruits, vegetables and grain, bigger is not better 
for you.

A report issued this week examined several recent studies by food scientists, 
nutritionists, growers and plant breeders. It found clear evidence that as 
the produce we eat gets larger, its vitamins, minerals and beneficial 
chemical compounds significantly diminish as does taste and aroma.

Growing bigger tomatoes and ears of corn leads to a bigger yield for the 
producer, but the tradeoff is the lower nutritional value.

Some say the gutting of the nutritional value of what we eat could affect 
public health, particularly in poorer countries. "There is no sinister 
villain behind this," said Chuck Benbrook, chief scientist for the Organic 
Center, which commissioned the report. "Increasing the amount of food grown 
per acre, by itself, is a good thing."

"The problem is that until recently, no one ever checked to see what was 
happening to the nutritional value of these much larger tomatoes, bigger 
grapefruit and the rest of the crops.

"Now we're in trouble. Not just the U.S. but almost every Western country 
that is using improved growing methods," Benbrook said.

Because of the work of plant scientists and crop breeders, farmers have 
doubled or tripled the yield per acre of most major fruits, vegetables and 
grains over the past 50 years.

Agriculture's "almost single-minded focus on increasing yields created a 
blind spot" in nutritional content, said Brian Halweil, author of the Organic 
Center's report, "Still No Free Lunch."

"Almost more alarming, this decline has escaped the notice of scientists, 
government and consumers," wrote Halweil, a senior researcher at the 
Worldwatch Institute and a member of the Organic Center's scientific advisory 
board.

The report said studies found:

# The more a tomato weighs, the lower its concentration of lycopene, a 
natural anti-cancer chemical that makes tomatoes red. There is also less 
vitamin C and beta carotene, a nutrient linked to vitamin A.

# Milk from high-production dairy cows has lower concentrations of fat, 
protein and other nutrition-enhancing components than the milk from dairy 
operations of 20 years ago or more.

# Sweet corn, potatoes and whole wheat bread show double-digit declines in 
iron, zinc and calcium. The time span of the decline varies depending on the 
product studied, but generally ranges from 20 to 100 years.

Over the years, improvements in seeds and plant stock not only grew larger 
plants but permitted them to be grown closer together and crop yields soared.

"Of course we're now capable of feeding more people but what's happened is 
that unintentionally, the nutritional value of our food supply has been 
eroded," Benbrook said.

Nutrient decline is also found in some organic crops.

"I wish I could say that there is no loss in organically grown crops but 
that's just not the case," said Benbrook. "Organic farmers face the same laws 
of nature and economic pressures as conventional growers and pushing yields 
upward often increases profits."

Vital chemical missing

Donald Davis, a senior researcher at the University of Texas, did some of the 
most illuminating research into the disappearing nutrients. He compared 
Agriculture Department figures on nutrient content for 43 common fruits and 
vegetables.

Davis says historical data spanning 50 to 70 years show apparent declines of 
5 to 40 percent or more in minerals, vitamins and proteins in groups of 
foods, especially vegetables.

Higher yield crops also decrease the concentrations of cancer fighting 
chemicals and anti-toxins -- known as phytonutrients or phytochemicals. Food 
scientists have identified the benefits of only a few of these. Davis 
estimates that "We are beginning to understand how valuable these 
phytochemicals actually are," said Davis. "We can only guess what the loss of 
these from high yield farming will mean to the health of the consumer."

Surprise in the wheat fields

Washington State University Professors Stephen Jones and Keven Murphy, who 
are involved the school's century-old wheat-breeding program for Northwest 
farmers, decided to see how the grain's nutritional value has changed in 100 
years.

"Keven's research showed that today's modern wheat has less nutritional 
value," Jones said. "It is a concern and the differences are easy to 
understand.

"You would have to eat twice as many slices of modern bread as you would of 
the older variety to get the same nutritional value. How did this happen? The 
breeders and growers and all the rest of us never looked at whether the 
nutritional content stayed the same as the yield increased."

Instead, researchers focused on "how good a cookie the wheat made, how nice a 
loaf of bread it produced or how the pizza dough acts," Jones explained.

"That's all related to protein" he said. "It's not related to iron and zinc 
and selenium and other essential vitamins and minerals."

Jones and Murphy are concerned because 25 percent of the wheat in the world 
comes from the United States.

"None of that has ever been bred for nutritional value," he said. "In this 
country we get our nutrients by spreading on the peanut butter or a cheese 
burger, and we call it good.

"In many countries that import our wheat, the mainstay of the diet may be 
bread alone. The lack of nutrients becomes a far more serious issue."

Solutions by accident

In July, at the annual meeting of the American Society for Horticultural 
Science, international horticulturalist and plant breeders gathered for the 
first time to discuss the problem.

They realized there is a way to reverse the decline in some, if not all 
crops, food researcher Davis said. It's already happening, albeit by accident.

Consumers want their carrots bright orange, he says, so breeders found a way 
to intensify the color to sell more carrots. With the new brighter color came 
an unexpected increase in vitamin A.

Marketing experts said pineapple should be sweeter. So, growers bred for 
added sweetness, and with it came a higher level of vitamin C.

Meddling to make watermelons a brighter red was accompanied by an increase in 
lycopene, which may have cancer-fighting properties and to help control 
macular degeneration, which can cause blindness.

"All these just happened as a side effect to making crops more marketable," 
Davis said. "If the consumers demand that nutritional content be added to 
their favorite food, it will happen."

Jones says his wheat growers are already discussing breeding wheat that has 
the vitamins, minerals and protein of the past.

"There would be a good market for their wheat with a greater nutritional 
value in the Seattle and Portland area. Small millers and bakers would work 
together to produce a more nutritional bread that consumers could get excited 
about."

Davis acknowledges that the findings are troublesome but says consumers 
should not be discouraged. "Vegetables are still our very best sources of 
many nutrients and phytochemicals. Just eat more!"
P-I senior correspondent Andrew Schneider can be reached at 206-448-8218 or 
andrewschneider@seattlepi.com.