Nutrient Dense Food

The Bionutrient Food Association (BFA) and the Bionutrient Institute are doing important work on soil and human health. The institute conducts research and holds annual conferences. These gatherings have brought together leaders in farming and soil improvement. Videos of these talks, held over the course of 10 years, are available on their youtube channel.

The website explains the paradigm shift of its focus on the nutrient value of food. Dan Kittredge and his team have created a tool to detect nutrient density–a handheld spectrometer, the Bionutrient Meter. This project allows BFA members to contribute data that the program’s scientists and labs can access and analyze.

“The dominant incentive in farming currently is yield. Farmers are paid based on the number of bushels and pounds produced, and so treat their soil accordingly. Doing what is necessary to harvest a crop even if it is in many cases destructive to the soil. We have gotten to a place where the soils on many farms simply will not produce under conventional fertility programs, and it seems our populace is also in a similar position. So worn out and tired that degenerative disease and underlying health issues are extraordinarily prevalent.” from “Soil” by the Bionutrient Food Association.

View the video on the Real Food Campaign, sister project of the Bionutrient Food Association.

• Organic Consumers Association (OCA) “educates and advocates on behalf of organic consumers, engages consumers in marketplace pressure campaigns, and works to advance sound food and farming policy through grassroots lobbying.” Issues include: food safety, pesticide use, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children’s health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, & environmental sustainability.

• The Good Food Purchasing Program transforms the way public institutions purchase food by creating a transparent and equitable food system designed to do for the food system what LEED certification did for energy efficiency in buildings. The Program provides a metric based, flexible framework that encourages large institutions to direct their buying power toward five core values: local economies, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare and nutrition. The Good Food Purchasing Program is the first procurement model to support these food system values in equal measure.

• The Sustainable Food Trust amplifies and connects organizations involved in this work. Read their suggestions about eating sustainably and follow their podcasts on how to transition towards food and farming systems, capable of nourishing both people and the planet.

• Land to Market is a project of Savory Global: A community working to advance Holistic Management. It’s Ecological Outcome Verification is a standard scientists and researchers around the world developed. It is an empirical and scalable soil and landscape assessment methodology used to track outcomes in soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem function.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s infographic (right) shows the relationship between healthy soil and human well-being.