Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[su do <speakingbeareturns@yahoo.com>]

I have definitely noticed a lack of flavor in over
sized veggies from the commercial supermarkets.
--- activism98201@verizon.net wrote:

> 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 
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