Is Agribusiness Making Food Less Nutritious?

[Guest guest]

David Elfstrom <listbox

Mon Jun 14, 2004 10:21 am

Is Agribusiness Making Food Less Nutritious?

Commentary from redflagsdaily.com:

(Article follows)

 

" Are the fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products you consume

lessnutritious today than in the past?

 

And what relevance does this have for your overall health?

 

This is not an easy question to answer but it is one that must be

faced squarely.

 

What is the gain of advocating more of this or that if we have a

poor understanding of the nutrient value of these foods?

 

Meanwhile, Food Destruction Inc. (Agribusiness)

continues to plunder the planet of its nutrient value.

 

Here is one perspective that raises some important concerns. "

=======================================

 

Agribusiness and the Decline of Nutritious Food

 

http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/nutrition061304.cfm

 

Is Agribusiness Making Food Less Nutritious?

Growing evidence indicates that today's fruits, vegetables, meat and

dairy products have less vitamins and nutrients than in the past.

 

By Cheryl Long and Lynn Keiley

 

American agribusiness is producing more food than ever before, but

the evidence is building that the vitamins and minerals in that food

are

declining.

 

For example, take the two eggs shown at right. The one

with the bright orange yolk is from a free-range chicken raised by

Mother

Earth News managing editor Nancy Smith, while the pale one is a

supermarket egg from a hen raised indoors on a factory farm.

 

Eggs from free-range hens contain up

to 30 percent more vitamin E, 50 percent more folic acid and 30

percent more vitamin B-12 than factory eggs. And the bright orange

color of the yolk shows higher levels of antioxidant carotenes.

 

(Many factory- farm eggs are so pale that producers feed the hens

expensive marigold flowers

to make the yolks brighter in color.)

 

Once upon a time, most of us ate eggs from free-range chickens kept

by small, local producers. But today, agri-culture has become

dominated

by agri-business.

 

Most of our food now comes from large-scale producers

who rely on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and animal drugs, and

inhumane confinement animal production. In agribusiness, the main

emphasis is on getting the highest possible yields and profits;

nutrient content (and flavor) are, at best, second thoughts.

 

This shift in production methods is clearly giving us less

nutritious eggs and meat.

 

Beef from cattle raised in feedlots on growth hormones and high-

grain diets has lower levels of vitamins E, A, D and

betacarotene, and twice as much fat, as grass-fed beef.

 

Health writer Jo Robinson has done groundbreaking work on this

subject, collecting the evidence on her Web site,

www.eatwild.com

<http://www.eatwild.com> ,

and in her book Pasture Perfect.

 

Similar nutrient declines can be documented in milk, butter and

cheese. As one researcher writing in the Journal of Dairy Research

explained, It follows that continuing breeding and management

systems that focus solely on increasing milk yield will result in a

steady dilution of

vitamins and antioxidants.

 

(Todays super-cows are bred and fed to produce 20

times more milk than a cow needs to sustain a healthy calf.)

 

How much, and why, the nutrients in vegetables and fruits may be

declining is less clear.

 

Comparisons of 2004 data from the USDA s National Nutrient

Database, with numbers from 1975, show declines in nutrients in a

number of foods (see Signs of Nutrient Decline <#resources> ) as

well as some increases.

 

When reports of apparent downward trends in nutrient

content in vegetables and fruits appeared in 1999, we wrote to then-

U.S.

Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman for an explanation:

 

Is the drop linked to preventable factors, such as American

agriculture s dependence on acidic nitrogen fertilizers and the

effects of acid rain? Will you ask your

top scientists to give us some direct answers?

 

Writing on Glickman s behalf, Phyllis E. Johnson, director of the

USDA s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md., confirmed

the

findings.

 

It is true that in many (but not all) cases, the apparent nutrient

content of these vegetables decreased, Johnson said. She went on to

list

variables that might be related to the apparent decline, but she

offered no

indication that anyone at the USDA would be studying the issue

further.

 

Recently, we contacted Johnson again, to find out whether there had

been any new developments on the matter. Her office referred us back

to

the 1999 letter and told us Johnson had no additional comment on the

subject.

 

What the Experts Say

 

Many things can impact the nutrient content of a vegetable or fruit.

Variety type, soil quality, fertilizers, crop rotations, maturity at

harvest time and the distance from farm to table all play a role in

determining the vitamins and minerals in our food.

 

We asked sustainable agriculture expert Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., if

reliance on chemical

fertilizers and emphasis on high yields might reduce the nutrients

in

fruits and vegetables. Benbrook has been studying the pros and cons

of

conventional and organic agriculture for more than 15 years. He

explained factors that make organic foods rich in nutrients:

 

Fertilizers. Non-organic farmers use highly soluble nitrogen

fertilizers, and keeping this nutrient in their soils is difficult.

To be sure

they get high yields, they often apply more nitrogen than the crops

actually need.

 

This dependence upon chemical nitrogen fertilizers means were

getting less for our money, says Benbrook.

 

Numerous studies have demonstrated

that high levels of nitrogen stimulate quick growth and increase

crop yields because the fruits and vegetables take up more water.

 

In effect, this means consumers pay more for produce diluted with

water.

 

High nitrogen levels make plants grow fast and bulk up with

carbohydrates and water.

 

While the fruits these plants produce may be big, they suffer in

nutritional

quality, Benbrook says, whereas organic production systems [which

use slow- release forms of nitrogen]

produce foods that usually yield denser

concentrations of nutrients and deliver consumers a better

nutritional bargain per calorie consumed.

 

Benbrook says the USDA has a tacit policy to avoid discussions of

differences in food quality and safety that may be a function of how

food is grown and processed.

 

The Department made a political decisionwhen they

finalized the national organic rule; they declared that organic food

was not nutritionally superior or safer than conventional food, even

though there is solid evidence suggesting otherwise.

 

This would certainly explain the response we got from Johnson s

office.

 

What it all comes down to, Benbrook says, is that you can t buy soil

quality in a bag any more than you can buy good nutrition in a pill.

 

Organic farmers work to support the complex natural relationships

between crop roots, soil microbes and minerals, but scientists only

understand a few of those relationships. Unless we understand much

more fully what the

critical balances are, it s very difficult to import them to the

farm in a bag or a bottle.

 

Vitamin C. High nitrogen levels reduce the concentrations of vitamin

C in crops such as lettuce, beets, endive, kale and Brussels

sprouts.

 

Similar effects have been detected on fruits such as apples,

oranges, lemons and cantaloupe.

 

Swiss studies have shown similar impacts on potatoes and

tomatoes, as well as citrus fruits which are major sources of this

important vitamin.

 

Harvesting and storage. The fact that the average supermarket apple

travels 1,500 miles from farm to table only adds to the problem.

 

Most fruits reach best eating quality and peak nutrition when fully

ripened on the tree or plant, explains Julio Loaiza, Ph.D., a

research scientist at Texas A & M University s Vegetable and Fruit

Improvement Center.

 

However, fully ripened fruit may not withstand the harsh handling

typically involved for travel to distant markets, which leads to a

compromise in optimum maturity and nutritional quality.

 

Breeding for high yields. Plant breeders could maintain and even

increase the nutrient content of most crops, if they were asked to

do so.

 

But this

goal usually takes a back seat to economic issues: Large-scale

growers want size and fast growth so they can harvest early. These

factors feed

into sacrifices in nutritional quality, Benbrook says.

 

Why Buy Organic

 

What we need is a more holistic approach to our food systems. We

need to be

sure that high yields and maximum profits for producers don t come

with hidden price tags to consumers in terms of nutritional decline

or

environmental damage.

 

This approach isnt anything new to organic

farmers they ve been working their farms as holistic systems all

along, and the result is a production system that is better for us,

domestic

animals and the environment. The growing evidence that organic foods

are more nutritious is summarized in Why Organic Food is the Winner.

<#resources>

 

Certified organic growers are not allowed to use chemical nitrogen

fertilizers, ever. Instead they build soil fertility using cover

crops, compost and slow-release natural fertilizers.

 

Because they arent grown with chemical nitrogen, organic fruits and

vegetables tend to be smaller,

and yields seem lower compared to non-organic crops. But as

mentioned

above, studies have shown that organic crops often contain less

water, so in terms of actual nutrient value (and flavor) per bite of

food,

organic

often is a better buy than non-organic produce.

 

The higher dry matter/lower water content of organic produce also

impacts the levels of health-promoting antioxidants such as

polyphenols and flavonoids.

 

In a review of the scientific literature, Benbrook

discovered that smaller fruits had up to five times more of these

antioxidants per unit of calories.

 

There s more research that must be done before we can know to what

extent the overall quality of our food is declining, and whether the

rapidly

expanding organic industry will be able to consistently produce more

nutritious food than chemical-based agribusiness.

 

But Benbrook says the public health implications are considerable:

When you think about the diseases and long-term health problems that

are caused by poor nutrition heart disease, diabetes, cancer the

value to society of producing more nutritious crops is enormous.

 

Indeed, a 1992 USDA report estimated the following potential health

benefits if everyone in the United States could be convinced to eat

a diet containing the recommended daily amounts of primary nutrients

shown in the table:

 

" 20 percent reduction in cancer

 

" 25 percent reduction in heart and vascular conditions

 

" 50 percent reduction in arthritis

 

" 20 percent reduction in respiratory and infectious diseases

 

" 50 percent reduction in infant and maternal deaths

 

So, it seems to us that the government should be doing more to

monitor the nutrient content of our food, especially organic and

pasture-based products.

 

Currently, the USDA s National Nutrient Database, which is

widely used as the official source for nutrient levels, includes

more than

6,600 food products, including meat; fresh, frozen and canned

produce; and processed foods.

 

They even include candy bars, gumdrops, TV dinners and hundreds of

fast food items in the database.

 

But the agency has not included a single organic item, nor any

entries for products from pasture-based meat or dairy systems.

 

If they use our tax dollars to report the nutrients in candy bars,

isn t it time they started including

data on these healthier alternatives, too?

 

If you agree that the government needs to do more to enhance the

quality of our food supply, write your congressional representatives

and let them know.

 

After all, as one USDA secretary whispered while giving us the

mandated brush off, It s up to the public.

 

If they really want to know, they have to press Congress to

appropriate the funds. You also can send a message every time you

shop for your groceries:

When you choose organic or grass-fed products, you are helping

support farmers and ranchers who are offering high-quality foods

from sustainable production systems.

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

DietaryTipsForHBP

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest

http://www.alternative-medicine-message-boards.info