Book review: what your food ate
Less meat, more meat, no meat, or even meat that just isn’t meat, there’s no shortage of opinions of what we should eat. On the other hand, not many of us think about the soil when we sit down to eat: what did the cow eat before we ate it, what was the soil quality the plant ‘ate’ to grow for the cow to eat? What that really means for the food (and its nutrients) we’re really getting is far reaching:
the typical grocery store carrot now contains less zinc than those our great-grandmothers served their kids
the beef sizzling on the barbecue probably packs a lot less iron than what our grandparents ate as children.
Reports like these of troubling nutrient declines span the human diet, from fruits and vegetables to grains, meats, and dairy. And while what we mostly hear in arguments over the future of agriculture centres on differences between organic and conventional farming, the real story is not that simple-and far more interesting
What your food ate is a book about how soil health and farming practices directly impact plant health and nutritional content which in turn affect the health of the animals and humans that consume them. It highlights research pointing to an under appreciated factor contributing to food quality - the health of the soil on farms and ranches. A substantial body of evidence shows that the state of the land influences the health of crops, for better and worse. And the nutritional quality of the pasture, crops, or rangeland that livestock eat strongly influences their health. And yes, soil health affect human health as well!!!
Key pillars of today's conventional agriculture-routine plowing and liberal use of chemical fertilizers to grow relatively few high-yielding crops— helped drive the twin problems of degraded soil health and declining nutrients in food. Over the past century our food lost mineral elements we need in trace amounts, like copper and zinc, and others we need a lot more of, like calcium and magnesium.
“Today, you'd have to eat several apples a day to keep that proverbial doctor away.”
How much does what your food ate matter to your health? We can connect the way farmers treat their soil, grow crops, and feed their livestock to what fills our plates, glasses, and bodies. How we treat the land affects how it, in turn, treats us.
