Will Summers, Senior Associate for Climate at Deep Science Ventures, is the author of a report examining the decline in nutrients in crops since the 1960s. The researchers examined historical food datasets and long-term crop archives, including wheat samples spanning 160 years.
Their argument begins with one of modern agriculture’s great successes. The Green Revolution of the 1960s expanded the global food supply and lifted cereal yield per hectare by 215%, while malnutrition in the developing world fell from 35% to 12%. Yet the systems that pursued more calories and more tons per hectare also reduced nutrient content in many crops, the researchers say.
Fruits and vegetables are now roughly half as nutritious as they were in the 1960s, according to the report. Wheat, apples and carrots are also described as half as nutritious as they were then. Bread, cereals, apples, peas and carrots have lost between 20-50% of several key nutrients.
That changes what a full diet can provide. Consumers would now need to eat double the amount of fruits and vegetables to get the same levels of minerals including potassium, magnesium or copper as 60 years ago.
Wheat offers a more specific measure of the shift. Less than one third of wheat varieties used in bread production since the 1960s meet the recommended zinc target. Women would have to eat four slices of whole wheat bread to obtain only one third of their recommended daily intake of selenium.
The result, the researchers say, is a form of malnutrition that can remain obscured by adequate calorie intake. More than 2 billion people present at least one clinical micronutrient deficiency. Micronutrient deficiencies despite consuming adequate calories affect 2 billion people globally, a condition called ‘hidden hunger’.
Diets in countries including the United Kingdom and United States can be high in calories while providing little selenium and folic acid. US produce harvested today also lacks nutrients including vitamin C, calcium and iron, which the report attributes to drastically declining soil quality.
The health and economic stakes are substantial. Micronutrient deficiencies raise risks of chronic disease, poor maternal health and problems with child development. They cost countries up to 3% of GDP annually through lost productivity and healthcare burdens.
The researchers also warn that declining nutrient levels, alongside the growing use of GLP-1-based weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, could leave around 5 million working-age British adults with essential vitamin and mineral levels below safe levels.
Higher atmospheric carbon dioxide, widespread soil degradation and agricultural policies centred on yield could deepen the nutrition crisis, the report says. The researchers propose treating nutritional security as central to food security, building nationwide nutrient-monitoring networks and expanding farming practices such as soil organic matter enhancement to improve farm profitability and crop quality.
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