Farming Techniques May Have Contributed to Black Plague : Science File / an exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment

Medieval farming techniques stripped the soil of nutrients, probably generating widespread malnutrition and weakening resistance to the Black Death plague in England, researchers at the University of Bristol reported in New Scientist.

Historians have long puzzled over why the population of England leveled off at about 5 million just before the plague struck in the 14th century.

Ed Newman of the University of Bristol studied records of crop sowing and yields in the village of Cuxham, in central England, recorded in Latin in the 14th century. He discovered that phosphorus was removed from the soil far more quickly than it was replaced, perhaps causing the falling wheat yields that were seen during the period. If this finding was repeated throughout the country, poor nutrition would have been a widespread problem, making people more susceptible to disease, he said.