Feed The Soil, Feed The People
Did you know that you have to eat 8 oranges in one day to get the nutrients your grandparents got from a single orange?
50 years ago, everyone knew you had to eat your vegetables if you wanted to be big and strong.
Or at the very least, healthy.
But 18 years ago, a team of scientists from the University of Texas studied nutritional data from 1950 to 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits. Among them were asparagus, watermelons, snap beans, and strawberries. The researchers discovered steady declines in protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2), and vitamin C. All key elements to healthy growth. Levels of zinc, magnesium, and Vitamins B-6 and E likely all suffered too, but they weren’t studied. Another study done on nutrient levels in vegetables drew the same conclusion, focusing on calcium, iron, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C. The calcium level had declined 19-27% in a range of vegetables, iron levels declined 22-37% and Vitamin C fell up to 30%. A different study determined that the average person today would have to eat 8 oranges a day to get the same amount of Vitamins A and C our grandparents got from one orange back in their youth! Do you know anyone who wants to eat 8 oranges a day?
A study done on grain reported in a 2020 issue of Scientifc Reports concluded that wheat’s nutritional value has fallen as well. Protein levels had declined by 23% between 1955-2016, as had levels of manganese, iron, zinc, and magnesium. No wonder commercially produced bread now comes with fortified levels of riboflavin, iron, and other micronutrients!
Protein, calcium, and phosphorus are needed to build and maintain strong bones and teeth, as well as for proper nerve function.
Iron is needed to carry oxygen throughout our bodies.
Riboflavin is crucial for metabolism.
Vitamin C is necessary for the growth and repair of tissues - wound repair as well as the regular functioning of our immune systems
But how did this happen? Where did those nutrients go?
Specialists agree that the root of the problem (pun intended) is a multi-level approach to soil preparation, fertilization, irrigation, and harvest.
Soil is not mere “dirt” between plants. It is a complex and fragile web of algae, microscopic bacteria, nematodes, fungi, protozoa, and visible creatures such as earthworms, insects, and small vertebrates. Healthy soil is loose, not compacted. It is high in minerals, micronutrients, and organic matter.
The thing to keep in mind is that 50 years ago, agriculture looked very different.
Fields were not planted with corn year after year. Tomatoes did not follow a crop of onions. Peas might follow a crop of corn. Manure was spread across the fields after harvest. Perhaps a crop like clover would be planted, allowed to grow for a time, and then purposely plowed under so that the soil would benefit.
But after the war, companies that specialized in chemical warfare had all these chemicals sitting around. Instead of human warfare, they turned them into weapons of pest destruction.
Pesticides.
They became intense fertilizers that were easy to spread and use. (Never mind that they poisoned the people who worked with them, and still do.)
Now farmers didn’t have to worry so much about crafting work-heavy plans for crop rotation to avoid specific pests. They could plant corn 3 or 4 years in a row, spread pesticides, and perhaps get a jump on their neighbor. Farmers changed the way they ran their farms to maximize profit while it got harder and harder to make a living from the land. They did what they had to do.
Lobbyists, politicians, seed companies, and chemical manufacturers did what they had to do to line their own pockets too. Over time, they collectively made it easier to specialize in one crop to the detriment of the soil and the microorganisms that lived in it. The big seed companies didn’t care if the land’s microscopic web was destroyed. The farmers just tried to get by and make a profit. The ones who couldn’t either got out or went bankrupt.
Most farms are no longer a holistic balance of abundance.
Most industrial farms are strictly controlled by seed copyrights, legal agreements, and a frantic dance of competitiveness.
Along the way, the soil has become nearly barren. No longer home to a vast universe of micro-organisms that work to break down plant matter, the soil in which vast swaths of corn grow is nearly stripped of the minerals healthy plants need. Plants now depend on chemical fertilizers to reach marketable size, even though they have fewer nutrients to supply the bodies that will consume them. Ours.
Those same plants depend on chemicals to keep from being prematurely consumed by pests, even though they are now more susceptible than ever to drought. Climate change brings freakishly strong storms, floods, and wildfires that no plant has a chance against. But the fields that are not flooded or burned need to be brought back into balance if we are to return to health.
Farms must once again turn back to a balanced approach if we are to feed ourselves properly. If we must eat 5 times the amount of fruit and vegetables that our ancestors did, we might well starve ourselves of nutrients while adhering to the food guides our governments release.
If we want to be healthy enough to withstand what the future will throw at us, we need to eat better.
To feed our people better, we must return to feeding the soil.
Feed the soil, feed the people.
Scary stuff. Trying to improve the dirt in my yard but it's a slow process.
This is one of the reasons I eat wild when I can. Right now on my "lawn" which I've turned into a natural garden: mustard leaves, violet leaves (not yellow violets, which are poisonous), and dandelion leaves! I have a theory that we eat towards finding nutrition, and when we don't get it we overeat to keep trying to get what we need. Just a theory, based on a lot of observation in my own life and others' lives. :)