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The science suggests that food is becoming less nutritious because of more abundant carbon dioxide, not directly due to farming practices.
by randomdata 8y ago
The science suggests that food is becoming less nutritious because of more abundant carbon dioxide, not directly due to farming practices.
- andrewflnr 8y agoI have never heard that. Link?
- randomdata 8y agoHere is a NY Times article discussing the topic: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/climate/rice-global-warming.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/climate/rice-global-warmi...
- whatshisface 8y agoYou could just breed it back down to being slower-growing if that was the case, if that was what any big farmer wanted...
- randomdata 8y agoRealistically, what the farmer wants is irrelevant. A farmer who grows what a farmer wants is a farmer that is no longer in business. You need to have customers to stay in business, and so the customer always dictates what is grown. Customers don't buy product they don't want – why would they? If the customer desires a slower-growing plant, the customer will get a slower-growing plant (assuming the tech companies are able to make the science work, but that's outside of the hands of farmers). Although knowing the average consumer, there is a good chance they would never accept a slower-growing plant as it may cause autism or some other story that they start to spread around.
- jazzyjackson 8y agoThe breeding of a bigger, rounder, more beautiful tomato has absolutely come at the cost of nutrition. See https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/breeding-the-nutrition-out-of-our-food.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/breeding-t... "Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food" ". The loss of these beneficial nutrients did not begin 50 or 100 years ago, as many assume. Unwittingly, we have been stripping phytonutrients from our diet since we stopped foraging for wild plants some 10,000 years ago and became farmers." The rising CO2 doesn't help tho.