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Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#91

Post by UweSchmidt »

colechristensen wrote: post #55

There’s a cognitive bias where if you tell a certain kind of person a negative story about an environmental issue they will believe it, regardless of its content. If you read the article, none of the quoted sources say anything about depleted soil. It says it in the title, that’s it. Bait. What it actually says is plant breeding and other agricultural practices caused the nutritional decline. You breed plants for sto…

On the other hand many plants aren't even getting in contact with soil any more and just get some liquid fertilizer in a greenhouse.

That's the other cognitive bias: We still imagine old school farming, animals walking around the farm, happy farmers working outside. Advertisement and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ag-gag hide the grim reality.

Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#92

Post by OneGuy123 »

colechristensen wrote: post #62
dawidw wrote: post #60

That's why I take supplements on daily basis. Once a year I do health check and add supplements till their level is correct. Besides there is problem with GMO and pesticides. Later on we all have to pay for that with our health. Ideally would be to have own food from own farm where you decide and control how to treat vegetables.

Why would genetic modification to add resistance to a pest or herbicide have anything to do with nutrition?

Because it doesn't work like you think: this does NOT mean that because it's "GMO added resistance" that you don't have to spray it.

No, it's much worse: "added GMO resistance" means that you can SPRAY IT MORE without the plant dying.

So you will actually get a more poisonous product in the end due to more spraying.

They did a very subversive wording manipulation and tricked the people.

Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#93

Post by ourlordcaffeine »

dawidw wrote: post #38
petargyurov wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am certain that a vast majority of people have never tasted a "real" tomato. Here in the UK (though I'm sure this applies globally), tomatoes sold in supermarkets taste like plastic. Reason being is that they are picked when they are green and they "ripen" by the time they get to the store shelf. This is done because tomatoes are almost impossible to transfer safely in large quantities, because when they are ripe t…

It might be difficult if you live in block of flats. And pollution in a city could be a problem.

I live in a flat and grow tomatoes and things hydroponically in a corner.

Big initial cost, but those tomatoes taste so sweet. It's also just a fun hobby, I don't intend to save money on it

Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#94

Post by Pyramus »

zeristor wrote: post #53

Are there any tasty hydroponic harvests? Hydroponics seems to focus on salads, and herbs since they grow quicker. I have not heard of many hydroponic vegetables.

FYI the majority of tomatoes grown in temperate Europe (most notably the Netherlands) is grown hydroponically in a substrate like stone wool.

Search for "dutch tomatoe greenhouse" or the like, it is quite impressive from a technical perspective.

According to a German tomatoe farmer also in southern European countries like Italy and Spain more and more tomatoes are grown in stone wool due to a deterioration of soils.

Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#95

Post by durnygbur »

dawidw wrote: post #82
cultofmetatron wrote: post #67

I realized when I started traveling extensively how tasteless the food is. In thailand I just assumed they just knew how to better prepare the ingredients. Then I went to greece and had a proper greek salad. If you don't think you like greek salad, Let me tell you. A Greek salad is only going to taste good in greece. Why? because all the ingredients that make up a greek salad are local and in season around the same t…

> American produce SUCKS. How come? What there is Monsanto for?

It's Bayer now. Simply hand over your food production to Satan and let's see where it leads. Oh sorry, you've done it already.

Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#96

Post by colechristensen »

3131s wrote: post #80
colechristensen wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would genetic modification to add resistance to a pest or herbicide have anything to do with nutrition?

With more resistance to pesticides and herbicides, farmers can add more of these substances to plants, and that will incidentally kill other lifeforms in the soil ecosystem that affect the nutritional content of the soil.

Resistance to pests, not pesticides. This makes producers use fewer or no pesticides, not more. A naturally occuring pest resistance gene will be copied from one organism to the crop in question.

And the herbicide resistance usually allows for the usage of safer herbicides.

Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#97

Post by ourlordcaffeine »

zeristor wrote: post #53

Are there any tasty hydroponic harvests? Hydroponics seems to focus on salads, and herbs since they grow quicker. I have not heard of many hydroponic vegetables.

I grow hydroponic tomatoes for fun and they taste much better than supermarket tomatoes. It's probably to do with letting them ripen on the plant and build up their sugar content rather than anything to do with growing technique

Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#98

Post by [deleted] »

colechristensen wrote: post #55

There’s a cognitive bias where if you tell a certain kind of person a negative story about an environmental issue they will believe it, regardless of its content. If you read the article, none of the quoted sources say anything about depleted soil. It says it in the title, that’s it. Bait. What it actually says is plant breeding and other agricultural practices caused the nutritional decline. You breed plants for sto…

[deleted]

Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#99

Post by colechristensen »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #91
colechristensen wrote: post #55

There’s a cognitive bias where if you tell a certain kind of person a negative story about an environmental issue they will believe it, regardless of its content. If you read the article, none of the quoted sources say anything about depleted soil. It says it in the title, that’s it. Bait. What it actually says is plant breeding and other agricultural practices caused the nutritional decline. You breed plants for sto…

On the other hand many plants aren't even getting in contact with soil any more and just get some liquid fertilizer in a greenhouse. That's the other cognitive bias: We still imagine old school farming, animals walking around the farm, happy farmers working outside. Advertisement and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ag-gag hide the grim reality.

Very few food crops are grown in hydroponics, and when they are, it's quite likely they have higher nutrition content than their conventional commercial crop counterparts.

As one of the generational old school farmers in exile, I'm quite aware of how food is produced. Most of it that you eat in unpleasant industrial settings but not the hydroponic greenhouses you imagine, and if not, in a way that exploits extremely poorly compensated labourers to do things machines haven't been perfected for yet.

Re: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? (2011)

#100

Post by 0-_-0 »

kleiba wrote: post #19
stinos wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't be surprised if there's a relation between taste and nutritional value though.

Well, taste is subjective - nutritional value less so.

Taste is subjective only to a very small degree. Most people would dislike the taste of rotten meat or spoiled milk. If taste would be fully subjective it could serve no purpose and there would be no reason for its existence.
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