Oh, this item from today’s Huffington Post is really depressing:

[It] is stunning to learn that the Department of Agriculture has had data since 1981 showing dramatic declines in the nutritional content of modern fruits and vegetables.

According to the data, half the major nutrients tracked by the department from 1950 to 1999 showed significant declines — protein is down 6%, iron 15%, vitamin C 20%, and riboflavin a shocking 38%. Evidently the primary cause is selecting and growing crops for fast maturity, which means they don’t have time to absorb and metabolize nutrients.

The HuffPo post links to this news service item, which does note that the researcher who recently discovered this decline does not think this means we should stop eating veggies:

[Researcher Donald Davis, a biochemist at the University of Texas,] said he doesn’t want his study to encourage people to stop eating vegetables on the grounds they lack nutrients.

“That’s completely wrong,” he said, contending his study shows that people need to eat more vegetables and fruits, not less. “Vegetables are extraordinarily rich in nutrients and beneficial phytochemicals. They are still there, and vegetables and fruits are our best sources for these.”

On the one hand, it makes me glad I’ve started buying more organic. Alas, some reports suggest that it’s not clear (yet) that organic is necessarily healthier, while other reports are much more positive:

Good science comparing the nutritional value of organic and conventional foods is accumulating rapidly. It isn’t uncommon for researchers to find that the higher nutrient levels in organic produce completely offset the declines Davis found in conventional produce.

What this does say to me is that it’s imperative to get lots and lots of fruits and veggies, maybe many more than the recommended USDA servings. And organic may be a start, but apparently it’s pretty easy for stuff to be marked organic that may well be industrially produced with fewer nutrients, so even that’s not a sure bet.

But this also highlights, again, the potential conflict between the consumer and the corporation that are covered by books like Food Politics and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It also raises the issue of class; not everyone can afford to buy all their groceries at places like Whole Foods.

Like I said, depressing!