07/06/2022
A new, first-of-its-kind study finds farms using practices that promote soil health produce healthier food than conventional farms. The study, published in the journal PeerJ, offers what researchers are calling preliminary work, showing the relationship between soil-friendly regenerative practices and the nutrient content of food produced in that soil. David Montgomery, lead author of the study and a professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, says this is the first study that shows how soil condition impacts what crops contain. “The biology of the soil was really the part that got overlooked in moving to chemistry-intensive farming,” he says. “It may be that one of our biggest levers for trying to combat the modern public health epidemic of chronic diseases is to rethink our diet, and not just what we eat, but how we grow it.”
They found crops from regenerative agriculture farms on average had 34% more vitamin K, 15% more vitamin E, 14% more vitamin B1, 17% more vitamin B2, 11% more calcium, 16% more phosphorus and 27% more copper. For phytochemicals, there was a range of 15 to 22% more in regenerative farmed foods, depending on the type of compound. Results were just as promising for specific nutrients in beef and pork. Beef from the regenerative farm overall had three times more omega-3 fats but more than six times the amount of alpha linolenic acid (ALA), an essential omega-3 acid. Pork produced from the regenerative farm also had more omega-3 fatty acids: 11 times as much alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and two times as much eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), compared to conventional products.
More research needs to be done. But we're pretty certain that true regenerative organic and biodynamic farming is the way we start making our population and the environment healthier. Bon appétit to a future without GMOs, synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, and factory farmed junk!
READ: https://modernfarmer.com/2022/03/regenerative-farming-food-healthier
RELATED: A study out of the UK, published in the journal International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, shows declines in essential minerals in fruits and vegetables from 1940 to 2019. The researchers said most varieties of fruit and vegetables eaten today have been bred to improve productivity and profitability and “this focus on yield has largely ignored any implications for nutritional quality”. They also said that contemporary industrial agricultural methods, including soil-less hydroponics, could play a role in producing less nutritious produce, but that there is a surprising lack of robust studies that compare the mineral composition of crops grown in soil with soil-less production systems. READ more: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=371842588314409&set=a.362922935873041
