New research shows that the way food is grown may influence its nutritional value—and that healthy food begins with healthy soil. Action Alert!
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THE TOPLINE
- Growing practices and soil conditions can affect crop compounds such as polyphenols, vitamins, and pigments.
- Regenerative and organic practices—cover crops, crop rotations, lower disturbance—produce healthier soil, reduced pesticide/herbicide use, and more nutrient-dense foods that support the gut microbiome and other human health factors.
- Congress must support soil health measures in the Farm Bill, including the Agriculture Resilience Act, Soil CARE Act, and SCALE Act, with pesticide oversight and safeguards for contaminated amendments.
You can fill your cart with vegetables, cook meals from scratch, and do everything you are told is healthy. But what if the food itself is not as nourishing as it could be?
Two vegetables that look identical may contain contrasting levels of the very compounds that help protect our health. Emerging research suggests that these differences may begin with how plants are grown—and with the condition of the soil within which they’re cultivated. For families trying to eat well and prevent chronic disease, that raises a fundamental question: Are we growing food simply to fill our stomachs, or to truly nourish our bodies?
Organic Rocks While Regen Ag Data Emerges
Organic agriculture can be regarded as a subset of regenerative farming. Buit because it’s been studied for a long time the data is more mature and there are some strong evidence that, compared with conventional agriculture, it produces crops with consistently higher levels of key compounds that are beneficial to health and reduce inflammation and oxidative stress—key drivers of chronic disease—such as polyphenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, carotenoids and other biologically active secondary metabolites.
Large systematic reviews and meta-analyses indicate that organic production can materially alter food composition, particularly by increasing concentrations of health-relevant phytochemicals: Barański et al. found markedly higher levels of several antioxidant/polyphenol classes in organic crops, while Brandt et al. reported around 12% higher secondary plant metabolites overall and about 6% more vitamin C in organic fruit and vegetables. In animal foods, meta-analyses found substantially higher omega-3 fatty acids in organic milk and meat, while emerging regenerative-agriculture research suggests that soil-building practices may also increase selected vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals in crops.
The regenerative evidence is less mature than the organic literature, so there’s less to shout about in terms of its benefits. But a 2022 paired-farm study and a 2023 scoping review both support the proposition that farming practices which improve soil health can, in some circumstances, enhance the micronutrient and phytochemical density of food
What Beets Reveal About Food Quality
An August 2026 study from Utah State University compared conventional, organic, and Regenerative Organic Certified beets from southwestern Oregon. The fresh organic and regenerative-organic samples contained approximately 53 percent more polyphenols than conventional samples. These are compounds plants manufacture that have antioxidant and other biological activity.
Regenerative beets also contained more betalains—the pigments responsible for their distinctive color—than organic beets, although their advantage over conventional beets was not statistically significant. Mineral levels showed no consistent winner.
The study was small, with only one farm or source representing each system. Differences in varieties, growing conditions, and collection years prevent firm conclusions about what caused the results. Nevertheless, it raises a crucial question: does our chronic disease crisis have its roots (no pun intended) in the very way we grow our food?
How We Feed Plants Changes What They Give Us
Another study published in January 2026 provides further support for this notion. Researchers growing Chinese broccoli found that moderately reducing nitrogen increased vitamin C, phenolic compounds, and several minerals without sacrificing yield. Excessive nitrogen produced the lowest phenolic concentrations.
This experiment used hydroponics, so it does not demonstrate the benefits of healthy soil. It does show that how we nourish plants can fundamentally alter their composition and thus change what those plants offer us. When we give plants lots of soluble nitrogen by applying fertilizers, they direct more energy toward rapid growth and less toward manufacturing certain secondary compounds. Lower or more gradually available nitrogen can sometimes stimulate phytochemical production without necessarily reducing yield.
Connecting Soil Health to Food Quality
Soil, then, does much more than hold roots in place. Its organisms help cycle nutrients, while its physical and chemical properties influence water availability and plant growth.
- A review of 60 studies found that planting cover crops—plants grown to protect and enrich the ground between harvests—increased the abundance and activity of soil microbes compared with leaving fields bare.
- In a separate 21-year farming experiment in Switzerland, organically managed plots had more stable soil structure and more earthworms.
- A 2022 study comparing regenerative and conventional farms, that we mentioned in passing above, found that fields managed with cover crops, reduced disturbance, and diverse rotations generally had more soil organic matter and better soil-health scores. Their crops also contained higher concentrations of certain vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.
Plants respond to healthier soil by changing their chemistry in ways that protect them better against pests and diseases, while also providing more benefits to us as consumers.
ANH has previously examined declining nutrient concentrations in food that coincided with the rise of industrial agriculture. A comparison of USDA data from 1950 and 1999 found declines in six nutrients across 43 crops considered as a group.
The upshot is this: As industrial agriculture has become the dominant form of growing food, nutrient levels in fruits and vegetables have declined. This has had profound implications for human health.
Feeding the Gut Microbiome
For example, the nutritional quality of food matters to the trillions of microorganisms that make up the gut microbiome. Different microbes depend on different dietary compounds, particularly diverse fibers and polyphenols from fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, and other whole plant foods. Beneficial bacteria ferment certain fibers to produce short-chain fatty acids that help nourish the intestinal lining and regulate immune and inflammatory responses.
If farming practices influence the variety and concentration of phytonutrients in food, soil health could therefore affect more than the plant itself: it may also help determine the range of compounds available to support our internal microbial ecosystem.
The effects go beyond the microbiome. We’ve written previously about how large portions of the American public are not getting the nutrients they need and that these micronutrient inadequacies can increase the risk of chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
Reduced Reliance on Pesticides and Herbicides
Greater diversity on farms can also help reduce dependence on pesticides. In a nine-year Iowa experiment, researchers added small grains and legumes to the familiar corn–soybean rotation. The more diverse systems used 88 percent less herbicide while maintaining effective weed control and comparable or better yields and profitability. Once those systems were established, their estimated potential to harm freshwater ecosystems through herbicide use was dramatically lower.
In the Swiss study mentioned above, the organically managed plots used a whopping 97 percent less pesticide input while supporting greater biodiversity.
Carefully designed crop rotations can help farmers control weeds while reducing chemical inputs that negatively effect the environment and human health.
The Push Away from Real Food
The evidence is showing the power of regenerative agriculture approaches to improve human health and planetary health, yet special interests are pushing in another direction. We’re seeing a new wave of foods created in a lab like gene-edited plants, plant-based proteins, and precision fermented foods. A massive wave of deregulation has opened the floodgates to these products based on the principle of “substantial equivalence.” In essence, the FDA has said that it doesn’t matter how a food gets created. If the finished product looks and smells like a tomato, then it gets regulated like a conventionally-grown tomato.
These technologies, while distinct, prompt the same question: how much of food’s value can we capture by assembling selected ingredients? The crop studies demonstrate why nutritional equivalence should never be assumed from a few numbers on a label.
Rebuilding Health from the Ground Up
Congress can help farmers adopt practices that rebuild soil, protect biodiversity, and reduce reliance on pesticides. The Soil CARE Act (H.R.7474) would strengthen training in regenerative farming practices. The Agriculture Resilience Act (H.R.3077/S.1507) also has positive provisions on soil health and agroforestry. The SCALE Act would provide $50 million a year for state and Tribal soil health and wildlife habitat programs. The bill would leave substantial flexibility to local programs, however, rather than requiring organic production or reductions in pesticide use.
Tell Congress that these investments must include safeguards against contaminated soil amendments, preserve meaningful pesticide oversight, and support research connecting farming practices with food quality.
Action Alert!
