Frequently Asked Questions

Vitagri is a UK organisation building the first credible framework to measure, verify, and reward nutrient-dense food production. We connect the dots between soil health, farming practice, and human health outcomes — and we build the systems to make nutritional quality visible and valuable in the food market.

Vitagri was founded by David Rose — a farmer, entrepreneur, and food system analyst. The team includes agronomists, nutritionists, food system specialists, data scientists, and technologists. See the Team page for more details.

Vitagri is a mission-driven organisation. We are actively building partnerships with farming organisations, food businesses, research institutions, and impact funders. If you are interested in supporting Vitagri's work, get in touch.

Yes — significantly. The same crop type grown under different conditions can vary up to 200-fold in antioxidant content. Farming practice, soil health, and variety selection are major drivers of this variation. This is not a fringe claim: it is well-established in peer-reviewed science and forms the foundation of our Growing Health white paper.

Yes. Growing Health is freely available as a PDF with no sign-up required. A companion Citations & Glossary document is also available for free. We share this openly because the problem affects everyone.

There is a substantial and growing evidence base linking regenerative practices — cover cropping, reduced tillage, composting, rotational grazing — to improved soil health and measurably higher crop nutritional quality. The Growing Health white paper summarises this evidence across multiple crop types, soil conditions, and farming systems.

Diet-related chronic disease costs the UK an estimated £268bn per year, accounting for lost productivity, NHS costs, and social care. This figure is drawn from analysis in our Growing Health white paper. Improving the nutritional quality of staple foods is a high-leverage, underexplored intervention.

Caloric density measures energy content — kilocalories or kilojoules per unit weight. Nutrient density measures vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients per unit weight. A food can be high in calories and low in nutrients. Modern food systems are optimised for yield and caloric output; Vitagri's work shows that farming practice significantly affects nutrient density independently of caloric content.

Polyphenols are plant defence compounds — including flavonoids, phenolic acids, and stilbenes — that act as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents in human health. Plants produce more polyphenols under mild biological stress, such as competition, diverse soil biology, and moderate pest pressure. Intensively farmed crops with high synthetic nitrogen inputs and pesticide use produce fewer polyphenols; regeneratively farmed crops typically produce more. This is a key mechanism behind the nutritional variation documented in the Growing Health report.

Soil organic matter fuels microbial activity that makes minerals bioavailable to plants, supports mycorrhizal fungi networks that extend root reach, and buffers soil chemistry. Studies consistently show crops grown in higher organic matter soils test higher for mineral content, omega-3 fatty acids, and secondary metabolites such as polyphenols. Building soil organic matter is one of the highest-leverage interventions for improving the nutritional quality of food.

A 200-fold difference means two fruits or vegetables of the same crop type and weight could contain dramatically different levels of health-protective antioxidants — with farming practice as the primary variable. This variation is invisible to consumers and to the market, since food labelling reflects average compositional data rather than actual nutritional testing. It is a fundamental reason why current food systems fail to reward quality or guide meaningful consumer choice.

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) is a standardised framework for conducting and reporting systematic literature reviews, designed to minimise bias and ensure comprehensive coverage. Vitagri applied PRISMA protocols in compiling the Growing Health white paper to synthesise over 3,000 peer-reviewed studies — ensuring the evidence base is reproducible, transparent, and traceable.

The Bionutrient Institute is a US-based non-profit focused on nutrient density measurement, standardisation, and public education in food systems. It has developed accessible spectrometry tools for real-time nutritional testing of food. Vitagri and the Bionutrient Institute are international partners working together through an Innovate UK-supported collaboration to advance the science and infrastructure of nutrient density measurement in the UK and globally.

The evidence is strong and growing. Meta-analyses by Barański et al. (2014) found organically and regeneratively grown crops contained significantly higher antioxidant content and lower cadmium levels than conventionally grown equivalents. Średnicka-Tober et al. (2016) found similar results for dairy and meat from pasture-based systems. The Growing Health white paper synthesises the full body of evidence across 3,000+ studies spanning multiple crop types, animal products, and farming systems.

The GroundUp Framework is Vitagri's 7-component measurement and verification system for nutrient-dense food production. It covers soil health metrics, crop nutritional testing, farming practice standards, third-party verification, and certification pathways — providing a credible basis for premium pricing and policy incentives. Read more on the Framework page.

The framework is in active development. The Growing Health white paper establishes the evidence base and outlines the framework components. We are currently building out the measurement protocols, verification systems, and pilot farm programme. If you want to be involved in the early stages, contact us.

We are looking for farming businesses interested in trialling the GroundUp Framework and exploring how nutrient-dense production can command a price premium. Pilot participation involves soil testing, crop nutritional assessment, and practice documentation — with the goal of demonstrating measurable value to buyers. Get in touch to discuss.

Retailers, caterers, and food manufacturers can use the GroundUp Framework to verify nutritional quality claims in their supply chains, support premium product positioning, and demonstrate commitment to food quality beyond cosmetic standards. Contact us to explore how it could work for your procurement.

Organic certification restricts farming inputs — prohibiting synthetic pesticides and fertilisers — but does not measure the nutritional quality of outputs. The GroundUp Framework measures what actually ends up in the food: nutrient levels, antioxidant content, mineral profiles, and omega-3 ratios, verified through rigorous testing. A farm can hold organic certification without demonstrating measurable nutritional uplift; conversely, some high-practice conventional farms may achieve strong results under GroundUp. The framework is output-based, not input-based.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is the UK government's main farm payment scheme post-Brexit, rewarding environmental outcomes including soil health, biodiversity, and water quality. It does not currently reward the nutritional quality of food outputs. Vitagri's position is that nutrient density should be integrated into future iterations of the scheme — since the soil health outcomes SFI already incentivises are strongly correlated with higher nutritional content in crops.

Vitagri Pulse is a free AI tool trained on the Growing Health white paper and its 150 references. You can ask Pulse specific questions about the evidence base, measurement methodology, or framework — and receive answers grounded in the research. It requires a free ChatGPT account. Try Pulse here.

Subscribe to the Vitagri Substack for research summaries, policy analysis, and updates on the framework. You can also follow us on LinkedIn. Both are free.

Use the contact form on our Contact page, find us on LinkedIn, or subscribe to our Substack. We aim to respond to all enquiries within a few working days.