Nutrition

minerals are the only nutrient class with a plausible soil-based mechanism for their decline. Agriculturally driven declines in organic matter and the soil biological activity, and agricultural practices like fertilizer use and monocropping, could be tied to human health and the degradation of our food’s nutritional contents.

Could is doing a lot of work in that sentence

these inadequacies are not a death sentence or an acute crisis, but moderately increase an individuals chances of contracting various chronic illnesses, like osteoporosis or heart disease

Heart disease isn't a death sentence?

numerous micronutrient deficiencies are simply not associated with diet. Iron deficiency, for instance, is often caused by heavy menstruation or pregnancy (Sholzberg et al., 2025)

Would not having a diet more rich in bioavailable iron avoid the deficiency even in these scenarios?

Improving the iron densities of kale will not fix these issues.

Kale has poor bioavailability

possibility of future declines in nutrient density seem unlikely. Fertilizer applications have plateaued in both grain and produce crops, and the adoption of yield-maximizing varieties hit its ceiling decades ago

The top soil crisis never even factors into their 2500 word blog. Surely soil, and fertilizer are factors that are likely to change in the near future and to say they won't have a impact on nutrient density is bold.

essential to emphasize that, if you eat the recommended volumes of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, barring some extenuating circumstances, you will receive adequate levels of nutrients.

What if we could do the same by eating less, surely that is what the goal of agriculture should be

Follow the MyPlate guidelines and you should be good.

That's really dated, even the people who came up with myplate are not promoting myplate anymore.

the most effective public health responses to micronutrient deficiencies do not lie in the soil or the field, but on our dinner plates. That fact that nobody is eating whole grains or vegetable is by far a greater driver of undernutrition than marginal changes in crop nutrient densities.

Strong opinion, could it be the lack of animal sourced foods in the standard diet? The author doesn't consider it.

the core issue is that people are not eating nutrient-dense foods at the necessary rates

I find myself forced to agree, though I'd add bioavailability into that statement