{"id":131,"date":"2026-05-24T20:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=131"},"modified":"2026-05-24T20:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:08:07","slug":"black-farmers-warn-pollution-is-changing-the-food-on-our-plates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=131","title":{"rendered":"Black Farmers Warn Pollution Is Changing The Food on Our Plates"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, <\/span><\/i>support us with a donation<\/span><\/i> of any size.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Read more The Trump Administration Is Shielding Prediction Markets<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

If you\u2019re lucky, your family is still using great\u2011grandma\u2019s red beans and rice, black\u2011eyed peas, and potato salad recipes. And if you\u2019re extremely fortunate, those meals might still taste like home, even without her hands. But climate pollution has quietly made sure that the food on your plates is not the same food she was eating.<\/p>\n

Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is stripping nutrients like iron, zinc, and protein from staple crops such as rice, wheat, beans, and potatoes \u2014 the building blocks of Black American diets. New findings reveal that today, many of the crops people rely on contain fewer vitamins and minerals than they did just a generation ago.<\/p>\n

As that nutrition declines, so does the protection these foods offer. Diets that once sustained families now carry higher risks \u2014 from pregnancy complications to developmental challenges in children. In simple terms: Even when the plate looks the same, and even when you\u2019re eating enough, your body is getting less of what it needs to thrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times people don\u2019t really think too hard about where your food comes from,\u201d said Ashley Webb, an urban farmer in New Orleans. She has been growing food in the city\u2019s Ninth Ward since 2019 and offers free gardening classes to help residents understand their food systems. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another reason why we need to be thinking more about our food,\u201d Webb said.<\/p>\n

For Black folks, the weakening of crops may deepen long-standing health gaps created by racism in housing, food access, and farm policy. Experts fear it will lead to an epidemic of \u201chidden hunger,\u201d where rates of undernutrition and obesity grow from the lack of micronutrients in food.<\/p>\n

Webb is not all gloom and doom about this reality, however, and argues that growing your own food could negate some of the harmful effects of air pollution. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you grow it yourself or if you get it locally, it\u2019s going to be more nutrient dense because they pick it closer to ripeness and you know what\u2019s in the soil, you know the environment that it\u2019s growing in, versus conventionally, you might not know what\u2019s in the soil and what environment it\u2019s growing in,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The study found that as carbon dioxide levels rise, plants accelerate photosynthesis and pack on more carbohydrates, but this faster growth dilutes the concentration of essential nutrients. Over a generation, these important nutrients have decreased by 4.4% on average, but some decreased by as much as 38%. At the same time, the number of calories is increasing, which can contribute to obesity. <\/p>\n

Black Americans already face a disproportionate burden of certain nutrient deficiencies.<\/p>\n

Black women of childbearing age are significantly more likely to be iron deficient than their white counterparts, and Black adults overall experience roughly three times the prevalence of anemia, a condition often driven by low iron stores as well as chronic disease. Black preschoolers also have documented substantially higher odds of zinc deficiency compared with non-Black peers.<\/p>\n

Scientific researchers also found that concentrations of harmful substances such as lead may also be increasing in crops. <\/p>\n

This may be of particular significance for Black rural and urban farmers whose land is more likely to sit near landfills and chemical plants. Even when their own practices are sustainable or small\u2011scale, they are breathing, drinking, and planting into an environment that can erode the nutritional quality of what they grow.<\/p>\n

Some urban farmers believe that growing food \u2014 even on polluted land \u2014 can help people reconnect with the earth and treat it better. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI used to litter, have plastic and chemicals seeping into the earth because there was a disconnection,\u201d explained Yancy Comins, whose urban farm in Altadena, California, has helped residents reconnect with the land after the community was devastated by the Eaton Fire last year.<\/p>\n

When communities understand how much they depend on the soil, they may be more likely to protect it by working toward lowering air and soil pollution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we start taking care of our natural environment and stop taking it for granted by removing ourselves from playing a part in keeping it alive, we can see the connection,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten away from the land, but we will treat it better if more people see the benefits it offers by growing vegetables and fruits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental scientist Sterre ter Haar hopes her study can serve as a wake-up call for farmers and consumers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith food security, we often think of whether people can fill their stomachs. Our research emphasises that food security also means nutrient security,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to pay more attention to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers compared data from multiple studies in which crops were grown under different carbon dioxide levels. While the studies used varying CO2 concentrations, making direct comparisons difficult, the team found a consistent pattern: As CO2 levels rise, the impact on nutrients increases in a straight line. That insight allowed the researchers to standardize the data and compare results across 43 crops.<\/p>\n

Just as scientists are making these warnings, federal farm policy is moving in the opposite direction. <\/p>\n

In April, the U.S. House passed a five-year Farm Bill that slashed roughly $1 billion from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program \u2014 a key conservation fund that helps farmers adopt climate-resilient practices \u2014 and inserted a last-minute loophole allowing more air pollution from farm equipment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis will lead to more dangerous pollution and health harms,\u201d said Joanna Slaney, vice president for political and government affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund. <\/p>\n

For some Black farmers and food justice advocates, the answer to declining nutrition lies not in industrial agriculture but in reclaiming ancestral knowledge that has sustained communities for generations. <\/p>\n

Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, points out that many sustainable practices now celebrated in organic farming \u2014 from composting to crop rotation to raised beds \u2014 were pioneered by Black and Indigenous farmers long before they were codified by white-led institutions. <\/p>\n

At Soul Fire, which trains over 1,000 Black and brown farmers annually, participants learn not only how to grow food but how to build alternative food systems that can serve neighborhoods cut off from grocery stores and fresh produce. The farm operates a sliding-scale community-supported agriculture program that delivers fresh, culturally relevant vegetables to families living under what Penniman calls \u201cfood apartheid.\u201d Community-led efforts can create pathways to better nutrition, she said last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a survival strategy \u2026 when you make your own farm, your own co-op, your own grocery store, your own school, and you\u2019re trying to represent the values in the world you want to see,\u201d Penniman said. \u201cWe can\u2019t trust or rely upon the government or corporations to even do what they\u2019re legally obligated to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Cubans Rally in Havana Against the Trump Administration\u2019s Threats to Attack<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Air pollution is stripping nutrients from staple crops central to Black diets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nBlack Farmers Warn Pollution Is Changing The Food on Our Plates - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=131\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Farmers Warn Pollution Is Changing The Food on Our Plates - Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Air pollution is stripping nutrients from staple crops central to Black diets.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=131\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-24T20:08:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=131#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=131\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec0d70042821fd684a174c8d0e8becfa\"},\"headline\":\"Black Farmers Warn Pollution Is Changing The Food on Our Plates\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-24T20:08:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=131\"},\"wordCount\":1207,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=131#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2df4ec82541f5f7d2f2ced389fa2f7a2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=131#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=131\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=131\",\"name\":\"Black Farmers Warn Pollution Is Changing The Food on Our Plates - 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