Veggie haters welcome here.

In our mutual work of local food, it’s important that you know what’s going on with modern produce. According to numerous studies, the food our grandparents ate was more nutritious than what we’re eating today. “Vegetables such as tomato and potato have lost their nutritional density by up to 25–50% or more during the last 50 to 70 years due to environmental, genetic, and field soil dilution factors,” one study states. Scientific American notes that you’d have to eat eight oranges to get the same amount of Vitamin A that your grandparents got from one.

This led us to joke about how the Farm Membership is perfect for people who don't particularly like vegetables. With mounting evidence that regeneratively farmed crops are more nutrient-dense than their conventional grocery store counterparts, one would have to eat fewer veggies from a local, regenerative farm like SFF in order to enjoy the same nutritional benefits.

If the nutrient decline conversation is new to you, it's worth investigating. It seems like there are a few factors at play. Here are a couple:

After World War II, industrial agriculture favored high-yield crops rather than nutrient-dense ones, leading to a "dilution" of nutrients in the plant. What's more, soil biology in conventional farmland has deteriorated due to the use of heavy tilling & synthetic inputs. With fewer microorganisms in the soil, plants can't absorb as many nutrients that would otherwise be available to them (think of microorganisms as the "mama birds" of plants–breaking down soil nutrients so plants can "eat" them).

It’s true that the nutrient-depleted fruits & veggies we’re talking about are often a whole lot cheaper than ones grown here in Michiana. But as you can see, we get what we pay for.