Is Our Food Becoming Less Nutritious? 

It’s unfortunate how this video glossed over the subject of soil depletion. Soil nutrition is such a deep and important area of farming, and to just say that “farmers are careful to maintain soil nutrition with fertilizers” really does not do reality justice. Soil compaction and chemical fertilizers and pesticides/herbicides are a huge factor in when it comes to how the soil regenerates and also how it makes nutrients available to plants. Soil degradation is way more important than people realize.

As a farmer I would like to point out that in general, farmers only fertilise with N, P and K to get extra growth, not with things that replenish the soil with micronutrients. Also, most crops have been selectively bred to taste better, ie more sugar, not to be more nutritious, or to give more weight of crop. A lot of the beneficial compounds in plants are produced by the plant in reaction to stresses that the plants used to encounter, either insects, weeds or pathogens. Crops grown in very controlled, monocultural environments are never going to encounter those stresses and therefore will not produce the protective compounds. Resveratrol is an example of a very beneficial compound for humans only produced by plants that are stressed.

I have cash cropped in Canada for 40+ years. I am one of the few who adds micros based on tissue tests. Organic matter levels in most soils have fallen with time. Excess nitrogen speeds up the process. The OM is a a keystone for the soil microbiome which is essential for soil health. Plants find microbes so essential that they donate 30-70% of their sugar production by excreting it through the roots. If we select for grain yield, we may be stealing from the microbes. Bigger is not better. Is a 500 lb. obese human a "high yielder'? Nitrogen produces larger plants but the cells are puffed up with water and generally have thinner cell walls. Nutrient density decreases. It is easy to supplement fertilizer with any essential metals that are shown to be low.

In the case of apples breeding reduced the phenol content. Phenols are very healthy but also cause the apples to brown quickly after cutting, so they were bred out.

First sentence: topic introduction Second sentence: „a study in 2004 ...“ This is how I like my RU-vid.

has there ever been a reverse study to the one done in japan? i.e. growing crops in a low CO2 density to see if the nutritional values became more concentrated?

I was actually thinking about the dilution effect long before he mentioned it, right around when he showed the shrinking corn. If makes sense that it you have the same nutrients packed into a larger volume, it will appear as a deficiency.

I love how excited he is talking about something that could potentially doom us all.

Veritasium is back. With Food

4:16 I'm starting to think that all documentaries from that time period were voiced by the same guy.

One thing that hit home pretty hard is that the amount of protein in goldenrod decreasing has little effect on humans but a huge effect on bees.

This is why Sadhguru has launched the Save Soil movement, a global endeavor to address this issue at the proper scale, in an inclusive manner, with accesible and understandable language, and making clear how this issue fits among other issues to make easier for people to see where to invest their energies in an effective manner. We can avoid famines, wars, reduce the effects of climate change, and raise healthier humans and other species if only all countries focus properly on soil

"We’re still getting big plants, and they wouldn’t grow that well if they weren’t getting the nutrients they need" Not true. You get large leafy plants by adding nitrogen, farmers do that in spades to increase yields. But nutritional content comes from micronutrients, and farmers have been depleting those for 60 years. It’s a similar dilution mechanism to the one described for CO2. Adding climate change into the mix would exacerbate the problem. In short, it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

I love how this thumbnail looks like a fancy portrait of a rich plant guy

I am so glad you did this video... I have suspected that the reason we have "found" foods with amazing sources of vitamins and minerals because we are breeding out the vitamins and minerals of our common foods and now we need less common foods to increase those levels in our own bodies. I have argued this for YEARS. Thank you thank you for doing this one. So crazy that it is related to CO2 instead!

I used to LOOOOVE fruits and vegetables, but in recent years, I can literally tell something is "off" and I haven't been enthused to eat them. They seem to mimic the original plants but touching them looking at them, I get the impression they're fake, totally unappetizing. Anyone else get that feeling? Update: I Googled it and I'm not the only one thinking produce in America is becoming absolutely tasteless, but home garden food is still flavorful. :0

What about ripeness? For instance, I work in a grocery store, so I'm not sure how the picking process at the farm works, but I would assume the fruits and vegetables are picked green or slightly green, and then they ripen "off the vine" while they are packed and shipped to whatever warehouse ships them to the store they end up at. If this is the case, wouldn't they have less nutrients in them than a fruit or vegetable that is allowed to ripen "on the vine", like in a garden?

I was talking to this guy whose wife is a Soil and crop nutritionist expert who studies a lot on the nutritional value of our crops. He was very passionate about the subject like his wife. He told me that his wife showed him all the data about the nutritional value from crops and he was shocked to see how much nutritional value has decreased. People have always mentioned about this topic to me and I have read up on certain studies. I'm glad you're talking about it in a video Veritasium :D

There’s also food being rushed to be sold when it’s not ready. How much nutrition can there be in a green tomato ripened with gas vs a tomato that ripens on the vine?

For anybody growing their own crops, try heirloom seeds, they are the closest we can get to the natural crop (unless it gets cross-pollinated with some Monsanto abomination, although it should retain the original traits, not the modified ones)

If you want the healthiest plants possible, you have to create, maintain and support a healthy biome in the top soil. Constantly replenishing the nutrients in the soil that the plants consume - that's the purpose of natural fertilizers with organic matter, like compost, manure, etc. You can also use fish fertilizer and work it into the ground, or even molasses. Conversational farming practices of only applying NPK is like feeding ONLY fast food to a person. They might still be alive, but they are not healthy.

You missed a perfect opportunity to say "Now that's some food for thought" at the end of the video.

this man goes so far to make his videos good, HE EVEN TOOK A PHOTOSHOOT WITH CARROTS

I mean, if we're artifically increasing the size of vegetables, doesn't that mean they could be less nutritionally concentrated as a result? So we get to have a nicer bigger fuller looking apple but we don't necessarily expect the nutritional value of two apples of its size equivalent

Probably could have gone more in depth on the soil depletion topic. The way we are growing crops commercially are seriously damaging the soil and thus limiting the nutrients available for plants. I found it really interesting that the co2 increase in the air are making the plants larger. Thank you for sharing this. :)

Why don't they try growing the plant samples in the lower CO2 concentrations of 100 years ago and seeing if that matches up with samples of that time.

An anecdote, in 2010, I went to Cameroun for a month. I immediately noticed how little I needed to eat and how little I was pooping, when compared to my life in North America. It always seemed to me like their food was much more fulfilling. It's an anecdote not a scientific conclusion, but it struck me how this could be a sign that our food may be big, but empty of nutrients.

Veritasium, why are you not on national TV networks already? With the amount of content you've created of top drawer quality over the years, theres at least half a decades worth of series that you could be educating the globe with. =

Maybe if we start calling it "food change" instead of "climate change" more people would worry?

how come when you say it, it becomes so interesting whereas when i try to tell the same thing to my friends they all don't care. you're a great teller man!

The microbes in the soil are dying out because of intensive farming practices. When you expose the top soil to sunlight the microbes start dying out. The microbes breakdown the nutrients in the soil into a form that the plants are able to absorb. Similar to how the microbes in the human gut breakdown the food we eat into nutrients our body can absorb.

You have mastered the youtube algorithm;) All your old videos are spamming my feed 😅 I’m glad you will still make alot of money on your old content. Well deserved:)

Dude... did you just skip over soil depletion and fertilization by saying 'they still grow big, so can't be a problem?!?!' - The difference between looking after soil using compost, fallow crops and charcoal vs. modern chemical fertilizers is a massive deal, how could you just skip that? In a nutshell, there is supposed to be a healthy living ecosystem in soil and its also supposed to have trace amounts of almost all elements in it. Over time plants absorb these trace minerals and then we eat them and absorb them. However, if we don't use proper soil maintenance techniques, and instead we use modern fertilizers, then for the most part we are only replacing the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium in the soil. These are essential ingredients for plant growth, and allow plants to grow big. However, over time, by never replacing the other minerals and elements in the soil, the soil becomes depleted. This is why we need mineral supplements and multivitamins today - because we no longer get them in our food. Thus, you have neglected a major factor in plant nutrition without even acknowledging it properly. That said, genetic manipulation, artificial fertilizers and increased CO2 do all contribute to larger plants with lower nutrient concentrations, so thank you for pointing that out. However, do please inform people about the great importance of healthy topsoil. Its been a huge part of our history, as cultures who don't respect topsoil usually suffer the consequences. Check out "Topsoil and Civilization. By Tom Dale and Vernon Gill Carter." for more info.

Can you talk about how we waste so much food in our current system?

Its been 3 years, I'd like to point out that the video thumbnail is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Thanks to this video I did a capstone project on this topic! Thank you!

Depletion of the soil may be a bit too easily dismissed. Sure the farmers put fertilizers in the soil but thay may be optimized for growth rather than nutritious food. I know too little about this, I hope im wrong, it was just a thaught.

You are dismissing soils way to easily. Carbon content in soils have fallen sharply. The soil food web has changed because of this. Mycorrhizza fungi builds soil carbon because it needs it to buffer water, as the fungi needs a certain moisture level to thrive. Most plants associate with this type of fungi, and trade minerals and water with them for carbohydrates and some protein. Please learn more about the soil food web, and you will understand that while atmospheric carbon and plant genetics both are important, they are not the answer alone. Nature is complex, so reductionistic thinking can only get you so far. To find real answers, systems thinking is needed. A good place to start is to learn to differentiate between complicated and complex systems.

As other people have mentioned, fruits and vegetables often taste watered down. Particularly in the US. I’ve lived and traveled in many parts of the world. You can really tell the difference. Mangoes, strawberries, etc. The ones from big box grocery stores like Ralph’s or Vons or Albertsons are almost inedible. Organic are better, farmers markets are best. But often still not as good as a market in Europe or Asia or Africa. I don’t know why.

"Farmers have always put a lot of effort into maintaining their soils and using fertilizers to ensure that the plants have all the nutrients they need." Beg to differ. Why do you think the US began acquiring the Guano Islands in the 1850s? Because we were mass producing monoculture crops without regard for sustainable farming practice. Soil depletion was a national crisis until the Haber-Bosch process enabled us to make plants bigger without regard for other chemicals (like the decreasing calcium and iron and other micronutrients that you just brought up,) which brings me to your next point. "We're still getting big plants, and they wouldn't grow that well if they weren't getting the nutrients they need from the soil." That's logically fallacious reasoning. Big plant does necessarily equal nutritious plant. The question is over the nutrients *we* need, not the nutrients they need to grow.

Farmers only add NPK (nitrogen phosphorous potassium) and that is good enough for the plants. Humans need selenium, iodine, zinc, copper, molybdenum, manganese, etc. Farm lands used to get replenished by floods but now we have dams preventing that so each crop reduces the mineral content of the soil. Please do a video about trace minerals in crops.

All the more reason that we should seriously be looking into mass scale regenerative agriculture. People like Gabe Brown have proven on thousands of acres to be able to systemically increase soil carbon by half a percent a year. 1% to 1.5% to 2% to 2.5% to 3% to 3.5% and so on. Another wonderful example is Allan Savory in Africa who has learned how to properly manage cattle and literally turn desert back into carbon sequestering grassland. The major difference being that if cattle are loose stock to an unmanaged they will destroy the land and turn it into desert but if they are mob stock rotationally grazed they will turn desert back into grassland. They're also happens to be quite a few other factors in the nutrient reduction of our food that you failed to mention. A couple examples of which are: The chemical chelation effect of glyphosate. The systemic destruction of the soil life (bacteria and fungi) which is necessary for plants to be able to digest the minerals trapped in double and triple bonds in the sand, silt, clay and rocks from which all plants have gotten their nutrients since plants came into existence. Especially the mycorrhizal fungal networks that are destroyed by tillage. I wonder if you know that both humans and plants are essentially incapable of digesting their own food and rely upon bacteria and fungi to break down their food into forms that the bodies of the plants and humans can use.

"This isn't a very convincing argument because if the soil has less nutrients than how are the plants growing so big?" Next theory: "The plants are growing bigger than ever, but that doesn't mean they're as nutritious." I think you just gave the counterargument to your counterargument for argument 1. Having large produce yields is not the same as that produce being rich in nutrients, and of course farmers "try to give their plants the nutrients they need" but this doesn't mean that modern fertilizer automatically offsets all deficiencies in degraded soil.

There was an article an year back that by end of century increased co2 will start affecting our mental processes. Although based on tiktoks it may have started already.

Hello! I really love this channel and I really appreciate the work of knowledge spreading that you people do. So I wanted to add my humble opinion (as a permaculture and natural agriculture learner) about the arguments that you used in this video. I think this is a very complex topic and this video was way too short and limited. I don't want to make a scientific essay here about the topic, it's just a simplistic opinion comment based on the information, books, articles and experience that I accumulated on the study of Agriculture, in order to expand a bit the view about it. (Sorry for my English orthography and grammar mistakes :): 1. "They're ensuring that soil gets enough fertilizers and nutrients" That exactly one of the main problems about food production nowadays and that's why even big industry is going back to ecological and natural processes based' fertilization. It's not the same that you put 20 grams of pure Nitrogen in the soil than letting agents of nature get 20 grams of nitrogen from the atmosphere, because in this natural way there is a huge number of parallel processes taking place and producing secondary products that goes to different metabolic ways all around the plant and inside the plant. This vision of agriculture was a big failure of glorifying the little knowledge of chemistry that we had one hundred years ago, that saw agriculture as "making a soup", you just add those ingredients and then you have a beautiful vegetable soup. But nature doesn't work like that, and has been proven that this vision took our soil to decay dramatically, all the microfauna disappeared with it, plants are more vulnerable to plagues and natural elements (wind, water flows, etc), also the soil's capacity of holding water falls, etc etc etc . In the "Wicked Problems" theory (Rittel & Webber) expose that a big thing to keep in mind when we face nature problems is that any solution to a "wicked problem" will bring unexpected consequences, so we should stay in the "heuristics of fear" (If applying some new tech or knowledge can bring negative consequences better let keep going further in the study before applying it). 2. This could sound conspiracy, but unfortunately science is lot of times pollute by market and money interest. Agriculture and Cattle Raising are two of the biggest industries in this planet, and so they are very pollute by money interest, which blocks the advance of learning in the field. Is not like I'm saying that there is a big powerfull head making horrible plans about what you can learn or not, my point of view is that this big head is more ignorant or trapped in the established system than evil, it's more that people fall into believing and maintaining the habits of humans that thought them how to do agriculture, because it's a hard thing to change the way of thinking and to accept that a lot of knowledge that you already learned is wrong. Also we fall in the "lock in" effect, so it's hard to change a system that is so implemented already. 3. That plants are big and look green and healthy don't necessary means that they're productive and healthy. Sometimes this actually comes because human fertilizers produce that the plant spends more energy on growing leafs than it needs, and so metabolism gets altered. Fukuoka demonstrated, with his natural agriculture system, that his plants of rice which had smaller leafs than big convencional agriculture producers' rice plants, were, however, much more efficient in rice production, using absolutely no external products no tilling, no machinery, and relying on crops rotation, compost, etc... 4. About selective breeding, I'm agree. Also with GMO there is the problem that we look to improve one side of the plant but we don't realize that this will change the other side. Is like when psychiatrist thought that to solve depression you just take off this part of the brain without realizing that you are probably affecting hundreds of other functions from the brain 5. Cattle Rising I would say is the biggest problem of food industry. Let say it more clear; Meat is a problem. I'm not vegan and it's not a preferences discussion. It's obvious and proven that cattle rising (in the way we do it nowadays, due to the tremendous demand) is one of the biggest problems we have both for the environment and for humankind (if we can even separate those two). I don't want to make a scientific essay here, so as a resume; you take 10 thousand cows, put them in a little room, they don't develop right, they get weak, they don't develop their muscles and systems, they get sick, you give them antibiotics, they produce metan, they feel fear and depression (which has been proven that they do feel it), viruses mutate (hello A-flu, Influenza, and probably Covid-19), and well in conclusion you have a very sad, poorly nutritious, medicated and polluting peace of meat that if you eat everyday will increase your chance to suffer various kinds of cancer and heart diseases. 6. Also there is a problem about fertilizers, plaguicides, fungicides, and the infinite list of products that farmers think they need for some strange reason that I still don't understand as a natural farmer learner. They not only destroys the ecosystem around, but also most of times contains substances that are not digestible both for human body and animal os plants bodies, and so they accumulate and produce various diseases. 7. About the CO2 factor, that's something I had no idea about, and I think it's really interesting. Just want point, plants need CO2 to develop but that doesn't mean that they are able to consume and infinite quantity of it as sometimes I heard. It can cause overdose in the same way that water can cause hyperhidratation and can even kill you.

The keyword is "soil food web". Mono-culture decreases the diversity in soil food web. Which leads to depletion from over harvesting/mining the same nutrient from the soil. Synthetic fertilizer only adds few nutrients but generally those few that make plant grow faster but not providing enough for the depleting nutrient. - Nitrogen (N): leaf growth - Phosphorus (P): Development of roots, flowers, seeds, fruit - Potassium (K): Strong stem growth, movement of water in plants, promotion of flowering and fruiting Plants need these but not only these. The check and balance of good soil is done by mycorrhizza fungi, the internet of plants. endomycorrhizza fungi sticks into the roots of most plants. Mycorrhizza fungi will trade/exchange and mine nutrients from the soil for the plant we consume and for itself. Kill mycorrhizza fungi and you get factory plants, plants with high NPK and carbon and lack everything else. In most mono-culture sites, mycorrhizza fungi level is extremely low. The soil food web is therefore broken/weak.

Thank you for the video. I think this issue is more complex that it seems and soil, breeding and agricultural practices also take an important part in it.

Glossed over soil degradation pretty quick there. Adding NPK fertilizer does nothing to preserve the health of soil. It's.a temporary fix that ends up contributing to the problem. No till regenerative farming is on the rise, but something like 80% of farms in the US are still plowing every year. That being said, farming practices wouldn't account for a global change as the CO2 explanation does. It's still important to acknowledge how damaging conventional farming is. Not only does it degrade soil, it also releases CO2 that could be captured in the soil.

Mushrooms do produce a lot of proteins. So fungi and fermented food might be an adequate solution to get the necessary nutrition supplements in the future.

Im studying Biologie and we talked about this in class a few weeks ago. There are even more factors that play a role in this. Firstly only one type of plant realy profits from higher CO2 levels: C3 Plants. All barley, wheat,rice and most crops belong in that group. The thing about these plants is that they are doing farly well with a decent amount of sun and enough water. But now higher CO2 levels forces these plants to absorb more water cause CO2 absorbtion and water circulation in plants is directly correlated, which means : our crops are going to grow faster in future but they are less nutritious and need way more water and climate chnage usually generates more drier weather. Source: Loladze, I. (2014). Hidden shift of the ionomeof plants exposed to elevated CO2depletes minerals at the base of human nutrition. eLife. 3: e02245. Myers, S.S., et al., (2014). Increasing CO2threatens human nutrition. Nature. 510: 139-142.

Dumping organic waste in the ground rather than in a separate dumping zone helps. Jungle farming and multilayered farming with the closed loop method also makes a difference. Burial grounds can be good cultivable lands too.

Lose of mycelium in the soils by tilling and modern agricultural practices.

Completely ignoring the fact that most fertilizers are made up of 3 things, which are the only things required for plants to grow big. Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. They don't typically add anything else to the soil since it doesn't help sales.

I find it a fascinating thought that we have recently been breeding crops for size, speed, and the ability to fight off pests and pesticides, but not for nutrition. In the 1970s this wasn't so, I myself used to work in a Unilever lab where we tested plants to check their nutrient levels in the fruit trees that we were breeding. I can't speak for now though.

We have definitely been breeding the taste out of fresh fruit as we selectively breed it for size. Strawberries in the UK get bigger every year, but they are force grown for size because that is how they are priced. That is easily achieved by encouraging them to take up more water.

The goldenrod part surprised me, mostly about the fact that we have data that old from which we can compare.

I love how you always go through the process to get a satisfactory answer. Discarding and forming hypotheses aa you go. Great job.

Do farmers really add in all the nutrients or do they mostly just add nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium?

There’s a fundamental flaw with concluding that this issue in contributing to the obesity epidemic. I haven’t seen any studies indicating that in most obese ppl, the majority of their diet consists of whole natural unprocessed foods. Most studies show the diet consists of primarily high fat, high sugar, high salt, foods that are heavily processed and for THAT reason, low in nutrition.

Interesting ideas. It sounds as if C02 is a factor. There could be other influences too. Even wild goldenrod has changed over the last two centuries as it has had to compete with cultivated crops and deal with fertilizer pollution. Also goldenrod is likely growing in depleted soils compared to two centuries ago.

Great video, but you may have left out information about soil depletion and erosion (and other changes) that is important in order to understand what is happening to our soils, and therefore, what is happening to the foods that are grown in those soils. Look up the phrase "farmers only put three minerals back into the soil".

How about the idea that vegies are becoming less nutritious(comparing to about 150yrs) because of the explosive growth of crop yields? ( assuming the 'total' nutritient content in the soil is consistent so individual crop have to share it)

I think you are 100% right with what you say. But also let's look at what you don't say. I remember growing up in the 80s and I tell you the tomatoes tasted like water. I hated them and preferred garden-grown tomatoes. Nowadays, I can't even taste the difference. 40 years ago, people did not take pictures of what were considered class A fruits. But if they had, I bet, the quality would have gone up. The strawberries I eat today look much bigger and better than what I had in my youth. And I talk about strawberries from German supermarkets (compare to Trader Joe's/Whole Food in USA).

best channel on RU-vid. Knowledge is POWER!!!!

From what I've seen, soil regenerative practices increase plant and animal nutrients considerably.

The first argument could be seen a bit different. The Farmers fertilize their fields with minerals that the plant needs for growing, not necessarily for having a high nutrition density. So fertilizing can have the same effect as the high CO2 concentration.

The single biggest reason: killing soil insects and worms causes less deep growth of plants, because they use the holes digged by worms. So pesticides, fungicides, large agriculture machines etc.

The place where we are losing nutrients are in our animal foods. The key place this loss is seen is in "amino acids". There are nine essential amino acids, and the primary, most reliable source for those essential amino acids is animal foods. This means that without those amino acids being obtained through food, our bodies cannot, and will not be able to obtain them or create them in any other way. If you look at the effects of what the essential amino acids do for the body, but then invert their effects, you will end up with a list of symptoms that you would find in "autoimmune diseases". Example: How many people below the age of thirty have arthritis (which is an autoimmune disease)? How many of those people also have another corresponding, more severe autoimmune disease? Arthritis is very common among people with other autoimmune diseases. Based on what I stated before, there must be an inverse to arthritis among the list of the essential amino acids. That answer is Methionine, the only sulfur based essential amino acid. And it specifically is used by the body for joint health, and for joint lubrication, among other uses. But you can probably notice that this should not seem to be a problem. But a few facts have not been stated yet. Did you know that amino acids are destroyed when they are frozen? Simply by freezing amino acids you nearly destroy all of their nutritional value. So here are the questions you should ask... When did the freezer become a common household appliance? Then compare that to when the term "autoimmune disease" was classified due to its increasingly noticeable presence. When did we start processing our milk, rather than delivering fresh, raw milk? And was there a noticeable increase in autoimmune disease cases, and types around that time? When did the farming industry start feeding chickens plant foods only instead of their natural diet of bugs? And was there a noticeable increase in autoimmune disease around that time? When a fad called "veganism" started becoming popular, was there a corresponding increase in autoimmune disease in children? If you do not ask the correct question, you will not find the needed answer. I just gave you the questions, will you accept the answers you find?

Vitamania was awesome, it confirmed many of my own misgivings about vitamins and nutrition. I am a former multivitamin taker. The only vitamins, I take regularly now are cod liver oil daily, and aReds (an eye vitamin recommended by opticians and Retinal Doctors). One of the things that always troubled me was how did they get everything in that tiny pill. Now I know, thanks.

I read an article 20 or so years ago that claimed certain modern orange breeds have almost no vitamin c. That breeding for volume and sweetness has led to the need to ADD Vitamin C to the juice. If true, this is another farming practice that should be stopped. I have also wondered how "greenhouse grown" crops get the micro nutrients and minerals needed.

You don't have to worry about over-eating if you eat lots of fruits and vegetables, because all that soluble fibre will make you feel full. Just be careful about the carbs, especially refined carbs.

Meat > Milk products > Fruits > Vegetables > Grain > Sugar If expressed in percentages, perfect human diet should look like this: 45% of meat products, 25% of milk products, 15% of fruits, 10% of vegetables, 4.9% of grain products, 0.1% of sugar. Humans are not herbivores and not omnivores. Humans are carnivores with a very limited adaptation to being an omnivore. Anyone who disagree should try all-meat diet for a week and later eat only grass for a week, compare how they feel after each diet.

So plants are growing larger, faster, but are not synthesizing vitamins or absorbing minerals faster. The nutrients in the plants are being stretched across more plant matter.

Two veritasium videos in a week! *Lettuce* celebrate.

Another theory to this decrease in nutrients and more specifically protein is that the pesticides used by the farming industry, with the main ingredient being Glyphosate, are destroying what's known as the shikimate pathway. The Shikimate Pathway is a process in which plants, bacteria, and fungi synthesize the 9 essential Amino acids using enzymes. These amino acids are used to build a large majority of the proteins humans need and they cant be synthesized in animal cells. It's estimated that around 4.5 billion pounds of Glyphosate are sold worldwide each year causing around 75% of the air and water to be contaminated. If you want more specifics watch the After Skool video "Chemical Farming & The Loss Of Human Health." They have sources/studies for the information provided. I am not an expert in any way I'm just sharing information thanks for reading.

Yes. Soil is being depleted of its minerals by big ag. You can immediately tell when you eat produce grown elsewhere (Europe for example).

in my part of the world in past centuries people had more appetites than dinners, now we have more dinners than appetites and so we don't have to worry about feeding hungry population anymore, instead we have to worry about the quality of our dinners. Good video. Thanks.

Another thing that could be impacting our food specifically is that we look after what the plant needs in great detail but probably don't look at the minerals etc. that a plant draws from the soil and may not need itself, but benefits us. I watched Catalyst last week and they were showing hydroponic farming specifically tomatoes and I don't eat supermarket tomatoes any more because they taste terrible. The flavour is one dimensional and the hearts are almost woody. The exception is a relative grows tomatoes in her garden and they taste spectacular, so it's not CO2 because hers breathe the same atmosphere. Same with bananas, they have no flavour and yet they are a hybrid and so should be consistent over time. CO2 BTW is definitely a factor in some food changes, Yams in Africa now produce dangerous levels of cyanide and Apricots are increasing their cyanide levels. They also reckon that by 2050 you won't be able to make traditional bread without additives because of low protein levels. Loved Vitamania BTW.

Soil depletion IS a serious issue. Fertilizing with N, P, K does not restore lost Fe or Mg. It does not restore beneficial symbiotes like mycorrhizae that are lost during fungicide/pesticide/tilling, and normally help plants uptake those nutrients. The CO2 aspect is interesting, but much complexity has been glossed over.

When Derek said "Hey" at 6:56 i immediately expected a "Vsauce, Michael here" to follow.

I got a McDonald’s ad before this played. How appropriate.

Seems like food is being grown for size & taste not nutrition - remember: "Nutritious Before Delicious"

I don't know if this issue has been addressed in the 4k comments but, has anyone mentioned the microbiome of the soil? There is an entire ecosystem of microorganisms that work together in soil to bring nutrients to plants. The research I've seen suggests that modern farming practices, such as tilling, disturbs this ecosystem which makes it harder for the plants to get the nutrients they need.

Goldenrod "untouched by selective breeding?" I somewhat disagree. It's untouched by human agriculture but bees absolutely do have preferences about which flowers they visit. Over millions of years, this selective pollination will breed flowers which are more desirable to bees.

The plants need BRAWNDO THE THURST MUTILATOR!! Brawndo makes plants grow!

NPK fertilizer is NOT all the nutrients a plant needs. That's not enough for you to blow past the idea of soil depletion. The nature of fertilizer changed dramatically since the 1940s. The value of this video is seriously hindered by your lack of research into this aspect

In summary, the nutritional content isn't scaling with the size growth. While food has become larger, the nutritional content has remained the same and the larger size is mostly just fluff (i.e. carbs). Like getting two bags of potato chips with same amount of chips, but one of the bags is larger and filled with more air.

This is reason why people take daily magnesium supplements preferably with their vitamin D3 & K2 supplements.

Constructive criticism: from 0:17 on, the music is too loud, and the style of it is distracting.

There is a pretty big question left u clear here: The nutrition per gram is decreasing but what about the nutrition per square metre of land? per litre of water? per month of growth? The plants grow differently now so these values might very well change in different ways. You said the plants are bigger now, which could cancel out the decrease in nutritional density when considering the yield of an acre of land?

I wish I wasn't developing the opinion that Veritasium serves as a corporate mouthpiece

Good people worry about global hunger, evil people worry about global warming. Spread!

Really unpredictable. Really amazing information

This might help someone. I noticed that certain vegetables round here looked a bit odd. I googled it and found that they had a boron deficiency. I ordered a pack of boron from Boron in the US. After a short while my teeth lost their sensitivity to cold and my muscles stopped aching and an injury to my ankle that I twisted 50 years ago has healed. I can run now and no pain. You have to take the right amount as I tried taking a bigger dose and I was paralyzed for a day as it sorts where the calcium and magnesium go in the body via the parathyroid.

The structure of the soil is as important as what it contains, and chemical fertilizers don't improve the soil. The point could be made, of chemical fertilizers, that we are just giving our crops "vitamins" which is not all they need.

volcanic country: "uhhh, mountain soil"

He pronounces produce ‘prahduce’

Fun fact: most civilizations collapse due to agriculture. Solution: permaculture systems and small gardens. POWER TO THE PEOPLE.

Industrial agriculture can increase the supply of food, but it also seems to be a fact that the nutritional value of food has plummeted. People are now pursuing more and more health. It is necessary to consume sufficient nutrition every day. Healthy body.

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