If we aren’t already, new research suggests we definitely will be by 2050. For some biochemical reason (which is still eluding scientists), heightened levels of CO2 in the atmosphere is significantly reducing zinc, iron and protein content in wheat and rice — by as much as 10% in the next 35 years. Soybeans and peas also seem to have reduced zinc and iron content. Since zinc and iron shortages in particular are already taking tens of millions of lives each year, and the world currently depends on these plants for ~70% of our nutritional content, these global climate change effects may be the worst yet on record. Increasing our carbohydrate intake to compensate for the nutrient loss would just add to our problems by making us obese.
Scientists are looking into the mechanism of the nutritional degradation process, so far to no conclusion, but we have other alternatives:
As discussed in foodie Jo Robinson’s book, Eating on the Wild Side, our staple foods have already had innumerable nutrients bred out of them — in favor of efficient packaging and storage. Apparently, modern Americans eat 7.5 billion pounds of fries annually (~30 lbs./person/year). I’m not surprised, since the first meal I saw after starting this post included some (picture below)! But, historically, Native Americans ate healthier varieties of potato, including the apio (potato pea). As it turns out, the apio has 3x the amount of protein of modern potatoes, as well as genistein — that beloved, cancer risk-lowering nutrient found in soybeans. Apios also lower blood pressure, go figure! So what’s the catch? Apios can take 3 years to grow to the size of modern potatoes, and even then their irregular. So much for the nutritional benefit! We’ve thrown apios away with as many as 5,000 other varieties of wild potato. But as nutrients become more precious, perhaps we’ll learn a lesson or two from the slow foods movement. I, for one, hope to garden my own apios. Green thumbs up from me!
BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27308720