Britain's Hollow Harvest: Why Today's Vegetables Deliver Far Less Nutrition Than in the 1960s

A new analysis drawing on historical food-composition tables, long-term crop archives, and a 2026 global wheat study suggests many common UK crops contain 20% to 50% less key minerals and nutrients than they did six decades ago. Researchers at Deep Science Ventures, in the report “Hollow Harvests: Rebuilding the nutritional value of crops in an age of abundant calories,” report that fewer than one-third of bread-wheat varieties released since the 1960s meet recommended zinc targets. Similar patterns are cited for vegetables and fruit, with peas, carrots, and onions among the hardest hit. The research notes cereal yields per hectare rose 215% since the 1960s, while global calorie supply increased 38%.