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The Organic Center Critical Issue Report Page
September 2007
Still No Free Lunch i
Still No Free Lunch:
Nutrient levels in U.S. food supplyeroded by pursuit of high yields
September 2007
by Brian Halweil
The Organic Center
www.organic-center.org
Critical Issue Report: Still No Free Lunch
The Organic Center Critical Issue Report Page
September 2007
Still No Free Lunch ii
table of contents
Foreword
...........................................................................................................................................iv
Executive Summary
.................................................................................................................... 1
Lessons Learned
.......................................................................................................................... 4
1. Meeting Human Needs
......................................................................................................... 5The quest for calories ................................................................................................................. 5
Overfed and undernourished
..................................................................................................... 8
2. More Food, Fewer Nutrients
............................................................................................ 11
Early signs of declining nutritional quality
................................................................................11
Side-by-side evidence
..................................................................................................................12
3. Explaining Nutrient Decline
................................................................................................16
Redesigning plants
......................................................................................................................16
More yield, less everything else
................................................................................................17
Faster growth, less time to accumulate nutrients
...................................................................20
Fast food for plants
......................................................................................................................20
The power of organic matter
.....................................................................................................21
A nutritional advantage for organic farming?
.........................................................................24
Will organic always be more nutritious?
...................................................................................25
APPENDIX 1. Nutrient Deficiency in the U.S. Population
...................................................................28
APPENDIX 2. Why Farmers and Consumers Should Worry
.............................................................32
APPENDIX 3. Natural Variations in Nutirent Levels in Major Crops and Effortsto Raise These Levels with Crop Breeding
........................................................................................35
References
......................................................................................................................................37
The Organic Center Critical Issue Report Page
September 2007
Still No Free Lunch iii
“A knowledge of the chemical composition of foods is the firstessential in dietary treatment of disease or in any quantitativestudy of human nutrition.”
R.A. McCance and E.M. Widdowson,
The Composition of Foods, 1940
Still No Free Lunch: Nutrient Levels in U.S. Food Suply Eroded by Pursuit of High Yields
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Sections
« prev | next »- Executive Summary
- Lessons Learned
- The quest for calories
- 1. Meeting Human Needs?
- Overfed and undernourished
- 2. More Food, Fewer Nutrients
- Side-by-side evidence
- Redesigning plants
- 3. Explaining Nutrient Decline
- More yield, less everything else
- Faster growth, less time to accumulate nutrients
- Fast food for plants
- The power of organic matter
- A nutritional advantage for organic farming?
- Will organic always be more nutritious?
- References
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