Rising Yields and Nutrition

It is no secret that agriculture has achieved increasing yields over the last century. Several techniques have been used, from hybridization, to denser plantings, to liberal use of petroleum based fertilizer. And others.

The Organic Center recently sponsored some research in which they studied the level of nutrition in staple foods as it related to these increasing yields. Their conclusion: while the yields of corn, wheat, and others increased, the nutritional value of the crops have generally decreased.

Here is a quote:

But American agriculture’s single-minded focus
on increasing yields over the last half-century
created a blind spot where incremental erosion in
the nutritional quality of our food has occurred.
This erosion, modest in some crops but significant
in others for some nutrients, has gone largely
unnoticed by scientists, farmers, government and
consumers.

Read the entire report (small pdf) from the The Organic Center.