Vegetables are half as nutritious than 60 years ago. Experts now know why

an hour ago by return2ozma to c/aboringdystopia

Fewer than a third of wheat varieties used in bread released since the 1960s meet the recommended zinc target, due to poor soil quality

queermunist 15 points 35 minutes ago

I feel like we already knew this was caused by poor soil quality? Like, we fertilize fields with ammonium nitrate, urea, and diammonium phosphate. You'll notice there's no potassium, magnesium, zinc, iron, or copper being added back. There's less in every harvest.

The good news is that we already have the tools to fix this, in breeding, soil health, markets and policy.

There's literally nothing breeding can do to add micro-nutrients back to our food, and markets got us to this point.

The only solution is policy targeting soil health, and that's it.

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chocrates 0 points 28 minutes ago

We can try to breed them back in with their wild ancestors. Or just start over with the wild ancestors

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queermunist 13 points 25 minutes ago

That will not add potassium, magnesium, zinc, iron, or copper to the harvest. That only comes from the soil.

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schipelblorp 3 points 24 minutes ago

Agricultural collapse has taken down more than one civilization.

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