I’m a country girl. I grew up in the Midwest surrounded by fields and farms. I spent my time outside playing in the dirt with whatever animal I could find. By age 10, I was driving a tractor and soon after that I was helping my mom can all kinds of vegetables to take us through the winter months. I was taught to respect the land and I admired my farming friends and family. But farming has changed dramatically since I was born more than 50 years ago. Back then, farmers rotated crops in their fields between growing seasons to protect the soil. They didn’t spray over a billion pounds of pesticides on their land each year, and that fancy GMO science that causes crops to grow bigger and faster didn’t exist. Yes, back then farmers worked with Mother Nature, not against her. They knew that the quality of the crop was only as good as the quality of the soil it grew in. Fast-forward to today and we find a completely different story—depleted soil producing nutrient-depleted food. As a matter of fact, I’ve been concerned about the nutritive value of our food supply for quite some time. As a research journ …