Vegetables: The Root of the Problem

Some thoughts came to mind when reading the article about the supposed news that dark vegetables and fruits do not contain as much vitamin A as previously believed (“Eating Enough Dark Veggies?,” Jan. 15).

How many decades have we been tampering with and depleting the soil content as well as the plants themselves with fertilizers, pesticides and so on? Now we are treating seeds with growth hormones, picking the vegetables or fruits when they are so far from ripe that they rarely even resemble what they are supposed to look like in their mature color. Everything is grown for size and shelf life. Produce varieties that aren’t attractive are culled out--regardless of the food value they may have as a particular type with more vitamin or health value. Plant food is radiated and irradiated to force the foods to ripen, which translates to “soften”--they won’t actually ripen further. If we have a care about our health, we should be seriously looking into the improvement of the growing conditions and production of our produce.

--J.A. RICE

Lakewood