Farmers Called on to Produce Nutrient-Rich Food

Is it possible for food to taste better, retain more nutrients, and enable people to maintain good health? According to Dan Kittredge, organic farmer and founder of the BioNutrient Food Association, a nonprofit that has been working to improve food quality since 2010, the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

In an Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food podcast, hosted by Koen van Seijen, Kittredge explained the connection between soil health and human health. His team at BioNutrient Food is providing research that proves the connection between plant health, soil health, carbon sequestration, crop nutritional value, flavor, and human health. With innovative technology as well as the education of consumers and farmers, Kittredge hopes to change the food and agriculture sector for the better.

There are epidemic levels of illness due to mass production of food that is devoid of nutrition. In order to help, BioNutrient Food launched a three-step approach called the “New Food Campaign.” The first step is to empower the consumer, so the organization invented a small device connected to a cell phone application that can be pointed at a vegetable, fruit, coffee bean, or other foods to determine nutrient levels in real time. They also developed an industrial version of the device for farmers to use as their crops grow. Kittredge says consumer demand will be the driving force behind the switch to healthier farming.

The second step is to create a database to identify the variation of nutrient levels within a crop in order to give the grower the ability to shift their management practices during the growing season. The last step is to evaluate which environmental conditions result in quality results. This would include determining what management practices work well and what soil types yield the healthiest plants. In addition, BioNutrient Food is exploring fertility, varieties of crops, and microbiome dynamics.

Kittredge believes that humanity is on the verge of a revolution in healthcare that is going to be profound: “You know, I think it was Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, who said let food be thy medicine.”