In 2004, Donald Davis and fellow scientists at the University of Texas made an alarming discovery: 43 foods, mostly vegetables, showed a marked decrease in nutrients between the mid and late 20th century.
According to that research, the calcium in green beans dropped from 65 to 37mg. Vitamin A levels plummeted by almost half in asparagus. Broccoli stalks had less iron.
Nutrient loss has continued since that study. More recent research has documented the declining nutrient value in some staple crops due to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels; a 2018 study that tested rice found that higher CO2 levels reduced its protein, iron and zinc content.
While the climate crisis has only accelerated concerns about crops’ nutritional value, prompting the emergence of a process called biofortification as a strategy to replenish lost nutrients or those that foods never had in the first place.
Sure: bring down CO2 levels. So probably not for a while.
Also, we breed for size and taste. That will also lead to lower nutrient density.
But we don’t breed for taste, only for looks. Ask anyone who’s been to Europe how much better their fresh food tastes compared to what’s on North American store shelves.
Let’s not pretend that Europe is a utopia. We’re going through the same shit as North America, with fruit/veg that lacks taste, looks uniform, and goes off quickly.
Oh my god, yes.
Prices are (were?) Lower over there too. I literally ate like 4 or 5kg of apricots in less than a week over there.
If your comparison is to the US, one thing to note is that up until very recently, the EU provided more agricultural subsidies and had higher import tariffs.
I guess by taste, I simply meant sugar content. Our fruits tend upp the size and sugar. Our vegetables tend to just up the size and in turn become bland and often watery.
I learned about how we made apple’s shitty by breeding for appearance and got very bummed out.