One more reason why growing your own isn’t such a crazy idea

by Ether

The Chicago Tribune had an interesting article yesterday about how the nutritional value of foods today isn’t nearly what it used to be.

The article opens with the tag-line “A person would have had to eat three apples in 1991 to supply the same iron content as one in 1940.” It continues on to illustrate how, through the pursuit of our beautiful and high-yield crops, that we have lost a significant amount of nutrition over the past 50 or so years. For example

  • “Spinach’s potassium content dropped by 53 percent, its phosphorus by 70 percent, its iron by 60 percent and its copper by 96 percent.”
  • “The iron content of meat products declined by an average of 54 percent.”
  • “The higher tomato yields (in terms of harvest weight), the lower the concentration of vitamin C, levels of lycopene (the key antioxidant that make tomatoes red) and beta-carotene (a vitamin A precursor.)”
  • “High production dairy cows produce milk that is less concentrated with fat, protein and other nutrition-enhancing components and are also more vulnerable to a range of metabolic diseases, infections and reproductive problems.”

Guess I’m not so crazy about growing my own food the good old fashioned way. Guess I’m equally not crazy for wanting to grow heirloom varieties over hybrids. A lot of comments on the article are about eating organic fruit and veg, which I think are missing the boat. Just because something is grown organically doesn’t mean the seed isn’t a hybridized or GMO variety. If you look at what was being grown prior to 1940, you’ll see that it was primarily that which is now known as heirloom. WWII is when most of the hybrids were created in the name of increasing yield for the victory gardeners.

Think back as far as you can. Do you remember eating strawberries as a child? Have you eaten one lately? Do you notice a difference? I do. I’m hunting high and low for a good heirloom or similar variety of strawberry for my garden. I’m sick of the gigantic glossy mealy tasteless fruit you find in stores these days. Even the seedlings from my favorite garden centers are depressingly bland. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve let the succulent and juicy, if somewhat more seed-filled, fruit of our childhoods die out.

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