Food becoming more calorific but less nutritious due to rising carbon dioxide (www.theguardian.com)
from who@feddit.org to world@lemmy.world on 19 Dec 18:55
https://feddit.org/post/23187832

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venusaur@lemmy.world on 19 Dec 19:25 next collapse

They’re ca-lor-IFIC!

Cybersteel@lemmy.world on 20 Dec 07:22 collapse

Supercalorificexpialidocious

Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works on 19 Dec 20:23 next collapse

Interstellar is real! ^i^ ^think,^ ^I^ ^don’t^ ^know^ ^the^ ^plot^ ^so^ ^well^

einkorn@feddit.org on 19 Dec 20:44 collapse

The premise is that crops have come under threat by climate change, on the one hand, and various blights such as mildew.

usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca on 19 Dec 23:02 collapse

It’s a specific fictional disease called blight

The_v@lemmy.world on 20 Dec 06:50 collapse

The studies are repeating stuff that we’ve known for 50 years. Higher CO2 levels = plants grow faster due to more efficient photosynthesis. They are able to produce more carbohydrates in the same amount of time. CO2 burners/generators are standard in many high tech greenhouses because of this. We’ve been artificially increasing the CO2 levels in production greenhouses for decades.

The conclusion that the higher CO2 is going to decrease food nutrition overall is complete bullshit. It shows a complete lack of understanding by the researchers of agricultural practices and the market requirements they sell into.

So the question these researchers are not asking is “What else affects the nutritional quality of food?” The answer is pretty close to everything: genetics, nutrient availability, pest pressure, disease pressure, relative humidity, temperature, light intensity, soil type, soil pH, soil salt levels, soil microbiome, fruit load, plant architecture, storage conditions, storage time, storage temperature, and a shit ton more.

Due to all of these variables, quality standards have been developed to facilitate equitable trade. Every crop has quality standards enforced by government regulation, international treaty, or industry standards in most regions of the planet. Although most of these standards were created without nutrition being a primary concern, they do enforce a surprising amount of regulation by accident.

Rising CO2 levels is one more variable that the growers will have to adapt to maintain their quality standards.