Food as Medicine: Rebuilding Nutrition from the Ground Up, with Alzbeta Klein
“Food as medicine” is moving from a wellness slogan into a real healthcare strategy—showing up in produce prescriptions, medically tailored meals, and a new wave of metabolic-health innovation. However, food as medicine is often discussed at the point of consumption—what’s on the plate, what’s reimbursed, what’s prescribed. But prevention begins earlier, in the soil, on the field, and in the incentives that shape how food is grown, processed, and distributed. If we want longer health spans, we need food systems that prioritize nutrient quality, resilience, and access.
Today we spotlight Alzbeta Klein, CEO of the International Fertilizer Association (IFA) and a 3L Advisory Board Member. Klein operates at the intersection of soil health, climate resilience, farm economics, and human health—where the nutrient profile of a tomato reflects not only consumer choices, but also agronomy, supply chains, and incentives.
The conversation below is presented in Q&A format to bring forward Klein’s systems-level perspective on restoring nutrition—grounded in science, optimistic about innovation, and aligned with 3L’s prevention-first philosophy.
The Nutrient Crisis: Research suggests nutrients in fruits and vegetables have declined 15–40% since the 1950s. What’s driving this, and what does it mean for public health?
Across published studies, nutrient levels in produce can vary across decades and regions, but results are mixed—and depend heavily on crop variety, growing conditions, harvest timing, and how measurements are taken. What’s clear is that crop quality is primarily driven by sound agronomy: giving plants reliable access to the full range of essential nutrients, managing water effectively, and selecting varieties suited to local conditions.
That’s why balanced fertilization and modern nutrient management are so important. Crops remove nutrients from the soil every harvest; if those nutrients aren’t replaced in the right proportions, quality and performance can suffer over time. With today’s precision tools—soil testing, variable-rate application, and better formulations—farmers can apply nutrients more efficiently, support strong yields, and maintain consistent quality while minimizing losses. In short, the path to better nutrition is not about blaming farming inputs—it’s about getting nutrient stewardship right so soils remain productive and crops can reach their full potential.
A concrete example from the field shows how nutrient stewardship affects food quality:
“On a mixed vegetable farm outside Ely, Cambridgeshire, grower Maria kept hearing the same thing from her packhouse: “The greens look fine, but shelf life is all over the place.” Yields were steady, yet spinach went limp faster during warm spells and retailer complaints were rising. Instead of chasing a new variety, she and her agronomist started with basics—comprehensive soil tests, tissue sampling at key growth stages, and a review of how nutrients were being applied across the fields. The results weren’t dramatic, just telling: potassium and magnesium were drifting out of balance, pH was uneven, and micronutrients were being applied inconsistently. They shifted to variable-rate amendments, split nitrogen into smaller doses timed to growth, and adjusted irrigation so nutrients stayed available without leaching. By the next harvest, the crop was more uniform, losses at the packhouse dropped, and buyers reported better firmness and consistency. That kind of stewardship is what prevention runs on—more dependable, nutrient-supporting food that helps longer health spans feel achievable in everyday life.”
Food as Medicine: If food is becoming less nutritious, can we still rely on diet to prevent chronic disease? Or is “food as medicine” becoming harder to achieve?
Food as medicine is still very achievable—but it works best when people have clear, practical guidance and dependable options. Research consistently shows that everyday eating habits affect heart and metabolic health, inflammation, and the gut microbiome. The real issue is execution: “eat better” is vague, and it’s hard to follow when healthier options aren’t convenient.
Prevention improves when the full chain—from farming and processing to retail and healthcare—pulls in the same direction: more consistent nutrition, better product quality, and easier day-to-day choices. That means strengthening how food is grown and distributed, improving transparency and standards, and using smart incentives so healthier choices become the default.
Supplements or Real Food: Should we strive to get nutrients from whole foods, or is supplementation now necessary? What’s the realistic path forward?
Whole foods should remain the foundation because nutrition is more than isolated nutrients. Fiber, protein quality, healthy fats, and diverse plant compounds work together in ways we don’t fully reproduce in a pill—and whole foods tend to come with fewer trade-offs.
At the same time, supplementation and fortification have a legitimate role. For pregnancy, early childhood, older adults, or communities with limited dietary variety, targeted supplementation can be pragmatic and evidence based. The realistic path forward is “both/and”: rebuild nutrient density and diet quality, while using supplements strategically as a bridge—especially for vulnerable groups.
Soil Health and Human Health: What’s the connection between soil health, farming practices, and the nutritional value of food on our plates?
Soil health is functional: structure, organic matter, microbial life, and balanced nutrient cycling. Those features influence what plants can access and how they respond to stress. Degraded soils can still produce yields with inputs, but crops may be more vulnerable to drought and heat—and quality can become more variable.
Farming practices shape that soil function. Rotations, cover crops, and integrated nutrient management, among others, can rebuild organic matter and improve water retention. Precision approaches can apply nutrients at the right rate, time, and place—reducing losses while supporting crop performance. In prevention terms, we’re not only feeding plants; we’re strengthening the nutritional baseline of whole communities.
This is how soil health shows up in real life:
“In a dry spring in the Czech countryside, Petr, a second-generation grain farmer, watched his wheat struggle earlier than usual. He could still “feed” the crop with fertilizer, but the soil crusted after light rains and the plants showed stress quickly under heat. After a rough season, he partnered with a local agronomist to rebuild soil rather than just tweak application rates. They introduced a simple rotation break, seeded a cover-crop mix after harvest, and used targeted organic amendments where soil tests showed low organic matter—while keeping mineral nutrients in the program to meet crop demand. The next year, the field held moisture longer, and the crop stayed greener through hot spells, with more consistent grain fill and fewer quality downgrades at delivery. Nothing about it was magic; it was biology, structure, and balanced nutrient cycling doing their job. When soil makes crops more resilient and quality more predictable, communities are less vulnerable to nutrition gaps—and prevention of chronic disease has a sturdier foundation.”
Innovative Solutions: What approaches or technologies could genuinely address declining food nutrition at scale?
I am most excited by solutions that link agronomy to outcomes. First is measurement: affordable soil testing and crop-quality assessment that can translate “soil health” and “nutrient density” into trackable metrics. When you can measure something well, you can finance it, insure it, procure it, and reward it.
On the farm, integrated nutrient management is improving—combining mineral fertilizers, organic amendments, and biological solutions with local data to reduce waste and boost resilience. Biofortification and breeding are also promising, especially for staple crops, when they improve micronutrients without compromising farmer productivity. The final ingredient is policy and procurement: standards that pull healthier food through the entire system, not just a premium niche.
AI’s Role: Where do you see AI having the biggest impact on improving soil health, crop quality, and ultimately human nutrition?
AI shines when it helps farmers make better decisions under uncertainty. By integrating satellite imagery, weather forecasts, sensor data, and field history, decision tools can improve nutrient timing and irrigation—supporting yields while reducing runoff and emissions.
The next step is connecting farm decisions to quality outcomes: models that predict not only tonnage, but attributes such as protein content, mineral profiles, and post-harvest performance. In research, AI can also accelerate breeding and agronomy by identifying patterns across large datasets—helping us design practices that are both resilient and nutritious.
A recent case shows how data-driven decisions improve outcomes upstream:
“In Iowa, agronomist Danielle supports a group of corn-and-soy growers who are under pressure to cut runoff while keeping margins intact. In the past, her recommendations leaned on “average” field rates and a few scouting walks—good, but blunt. This season she layered in an AI-driven decision tool that combined satellite imagery, short-range weather, soil maps, and the farm’s own yield history. Early on, the model flagged two zones that looked similar from the road but were behaving differently: one was drying out faster, the other was at higher risk of nitrogen loss after storms. They adjusted timing, shifted to smaller split applications, and avoided a planned pass ahead of a heavy rain. At harvest, the growers saw steadier performance across zones and fewer “surprises” in the grain’s quality specs—plus less fertilizer wasted where the crop couldn’t use it. The value wasn’t AI as hype; it was better decisions, earlier, tied to measurable outcomes. When farm choices can be linked to both environmental losses and food quality, we get a more resilient nutrition baseline—exactly the upstream leverage prevention depends on.”
Prevention Over Treatment: At 3L, we believe in maintaining health rather than treating illness. Where do you see food systems supporting long-term health—and where are they falling short?
We see food systems supporting long-term health when healthy eating is normalized early and made practical—through school meals, public procurement, and retail environments that make fresh food convenient.
Where we fall short is incentive alignment. Too often, systems do not reward nutrient quality, and prevention is underfunded. A prevention-first approach designs for access and quality by default.
Inspiration: What has inspired you recently in this space? Any books, research, initiatives, or leaders you’d recommend to health innovators?
What inspires me is the rise of “bridge builders” who connect agriculture, energy, climate, and health—because that’s where scalable solutions live. Prevention, after all, is resilience.
More than any single book, though, I’m inspired by leaders who translate across domains: agronomists who speak public health, and clinicians who take food environments seriously.
Closing Reflection
Food as medicine is often discussed at the point of consumption—what’s on the plate, what’s reimbursed, what’s prescribed. But prevention begins earlier, in the soil, on the field, and in the incentives that shape how food is grown, processed, and distributed. If we want longer health spans, we need food systems that prioritize nutrient quality, resilience, and access.
That’s also where compounding returns appear. Improve soils and you strengthen yields, water stewardship, climate resilience, and the nutritional baseline of diets—upstream progress that makes downstream healthcare lighter.
