The appearance of your fruit and vegetables reveals their growing methods. Justin Platt, founder and CEO of RegenZ and Zylem, explains how regenerative farming yields nutrient-dense produce, while conventional methods offer only superficial appeal.
In the bright, sterile aisles of a supermarket, produce grown under conventional methods using inorganic fertilisers and pesticides gleams with artificial perfection. Take a magnificent-looking commercial plum, for example. It is plump, shiny, and symmetrical.
Now, compare it to the plum produced more regeneratively and sold at the farmer’s market. The farmer’s market plum may be a little smaller, perhaps a bit misshapen… the difference between the two plums, however, goes far beyond a shiny skin – it speaks to the broader story of our agricultural practices and their impact on both our environment and our health. As Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Does it shrivel or rot?
The quality of fruits and vegetables is often measured by how long they can remain visually appealing on the shelf; their shelf life. However, this metric is dangerously simplistic, ignoring the deeper implications of how our food is grown, the nutrients it contains, and how it ultimately breaks down after its commercial life ends.
Back to the plum: the plum grown regeneratively with healthy soil will be more nutrient-dense than the commercially grown plum. As the plum sits on the shelf, it will shrivel; in comparison, the commercially grown plum is lower in nutrients and higher in water content, which means that it will (more likely) putrefy or rot into a puddle of offensive liquid. This poor shelf life results in short sell-by dates and is the prime reason for massive food wastage.
Modern factory farming methods, reliant on inorganic fertilisers and pesticides, have been perfected to produce fruits and vegetables with longer shelf lives and pristine appearances.
But these fruits, like the “perfect” plum that eventually rots into a foul-smelling puddle, are often lacking in nutrient density. Their resilience on the shelf comes at the cost of a hollow core – a fruit that may look the part but fails to deliver the nourishment it should.
In contrast, produce grown in regenerative, healthy soil may appear less polished but is often far more nutritious. These fruits shrivel naturally as they age, retaining their integrity rather than decomposing into a liquefied mess. The slow shrivelling of a regeneratively grown plum is indicative of its nutritional richness and the robust, life-sustaining soil from which it was harvested.
Rotting on the chemical treadmill
The roots of this disparity trace back to the dominance of large agribusinesses that have steered global farming practices toward high-yield, low-quality produce. We recently interviewed Dr Mike Barrow, a seasoned maize breeder, on the insidious role of multinational corporations in this narrative.
Over the past few decades, American and European companies have flooded markets with genetically modified seeds designed to respond efficiently to chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
This shift has all but eradicated traditional, more resilient crop varieties, particularly in regions like South Africa.
Barrow’s work reveals a disturbing trend: the prioritisation of yield over quality has trapped farmers on a chemical treadmill. Many maize hybrids, for example, derived from lines that were naturally resistant to diseases, have been replaced by varieties that require multiple fungicide applications to survive.
The short-term gains in yield mask the long-term consequences—soils depleted of carbon and nutrients, ecosystems disrupted by chemical runoff, and a dependency on higher inorganic fertiliser and ever more potent agrochemicals as pests and diseases evolve.
Nature’s unseen helpers
Emerging research by scientists like Dr James White offers hope for a future where agriculture can thrive without the destructive cycle of chemical dependency.
White’s work on microbial endophytes and the “rhizophagy cycle” explores how plants can draw nutrients from the soil through symbiotic relationships with bacteria and fungi. These microbes cycle between living freely in the soil and being absorbed by plant roots, where they are broken down to release nutrients essential for plant growth.
This process, known as rhizophagy, may account for a significant portion of the nutrients that plants absorb from the soil – potentially up to 30% in some cases. Understanding and harnessing this natural phenomenon could revolutionise agriculture, reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers and enabling crops to thrive in harmony with their environment.
A call for an imperfect plum
The narrative of modern agriculture has long been shaped by the pursuit of higher yields, longer shelf lives, and visually appealing produce. But this focus on short-term gains has come at a steep price: diminished nutritional value, environmental degradation, and a growing reliance on chemical inputs that are both costly and unsustainable.
The shrivelling plum, nurtured in healthy soil, stands as a metaphor for the kind of agriculture we should aspire to—one that values quality over quantity, resilience over artificial perfection, and harmony with nature over its exploitation.
As we look to the future, the choice is clear: continue down the path of rot, or embrace a regenerative approach that promises to nourish and heal the planet for generations to come.
At RegenZ, we’re all about the shrivelling plum, with a focus on regenerative or environmentally beneficial solutions for the commercial and smallholder agriculture sector.
- Justin Platt, founder and CEO of Zylem and RegenZ, is a seasoned expert in regenerative agriculture with a BSc in plant pathology and botany from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. With decades of experience and active involvement in industry bodies like FERTASA and Potatoes South Africa, he is recognised for his expertise in developing innovative soil conditioners and foliar feeds for the South African market. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Food For Mzansi.
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