Eric Smith is the founder of Edacious, a company building the infrastructure to make food quality and nutrient density measurable, objective and comparable. After spending years building a nutrition-testing platform capable of measuring macronutrients, micronutrients, bioactives and phytochemicals, alongside the benchmarks and data systems needed to make those measurements useful, he returns to sit down with us to share what they have been building, how the field of nutritional testing has evolved, and the critical insights they have uncovered.

At the heart of Eric’s work is a simple belief:  if consumers can access and verify the quality of their food, they will demand products grown in ways that prioritize soil health and regenerative practices. This increased market demand will structurally direct more money into the pockets of farmers and land stewards, enabling them to expand regenerative agriculture across more hectares, creating a self-sustaining loop of human and ecological health. To ground this concept in science, Edacious leverages the GEM framework—Genetics x Environment x Management practice = Nutrition instead of Yield—moving beyond subjective labels to deliver objective, verified data.

This episode is a deep, down-to-earth dive into the nuts and bolts of quality, nutrient density, and systemic agricultural change. Eric teases the science behind Edacious’ preeminent nutrition lab, which has processed over 6,000 food samples and generated nearly a million analytical data points. The conversation exposes the compromises of industrial crop breeding through the story of carrots, compares apples to apples, reveals the massive nutritional differences hidden in the skins of produce, and explores how Eric’s own eating habits have transformed since he gained direct access to the data, including a surprising advocacy for frozen food and ancient grains.

DOES NUTRIENT DENSITY MEAN YOU EAT LESS?

The relationship between food quality and consumption quantity is central to transforming our food system. The hypothesis suggests that more nutrient-dense food could naturally lead to reduced intake, as the body receives adequate nutrition from smaller portions. This concept challenges the current volume-based agricultural model and points toward a more efficient system where health outcomes and environmental impact are both improved through better food quality.

“I wholeheartedly believe that. I think that’s very complicated in today’s global food system to actually drive that thesis forward.“ Eric Smith

WHY ARE CARROTS SO INTERESTING?

Carrots serve as a perfect example of how modern industrial agriculture has sacrificed
nutrition for efficiency. The consolidation of carrot production, with just one or two
producers controlling up to 80% of the US market, has led to genetics optimised for
mechanical harvesting rather than nutritional quality. These carrots, regardless of whether
they’re organic or conventional, represent a compromise that has fundamentally altered
what consumers expect from this common vegetable.

“The difference nutritionally between those carrots versus the farms that are hand-harvesting and choosing the right genetics is an order of magnitude in vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and terpenes and all the other bioactives that go into those carrots.” Eric Smith

WE CAN’T EXPECT OUR CHILDREN TO LOVE VEGETABLES IF THEY TASTE LIKE NOTHING

Taste is the gateway to nutrition, and when vegetables lack flavour, the battle to encourage
healthy eating habits is lost before it begins. The current system has been optimised for
yield and shelf stability at the expense of the sensory experience that once made fresh
produce appealing. This disconnect between what vegetables could taste like and what they
actually deliver has profound implications for public health and dietary habits.

“People are not buying vegetables from supermarkets because they know how bad they taste. And we can’t expect our kids to love fruits and vegetables again if they taste the way that they do.” Eric Smith

DON’T SKIP THE SKIN

The skin of fruits and vegetables is where an astonishing concentration of nutrients resides,
yet it’s frequently removed in processing or peeled before consumption. This practice
eliminates a significant portion of the beneficial compounds that make whole foods so
valuable. When fruits and vegetables undergo processing—whether for baby food, juicing,
or other preparations—the nutrient profile shifts dramatically, often leaving behind mostly
sugar and starch.

“By the way, eat skin on everything. Do not take skin off of anything. Skin is the big delta on so much of the data that we see.” Eric Smith

WHAT HAS HE CHANGED IN HIS PERSONAL DIET?

Having access to a million lines of real-world nutrient data has profoundly changed Eric’s personal dietary habits. Instead of focusing solely on high-priced premium brands, he performs back-of-the-envelope calculations to optimize his family’s budget for the highest “dollar-per-nutrition” ratio. The Smith household has embraced frozen vegetables as a highly affordable and superior nutrient preservation technology, since flash-freezing within 24 to 48 hours of harvest locks in vitamins and minerals perfectly. He has also replaced starchy white rice with ancient grains like quinoa, teff, and amaranth, sources clean protein from verified direct-to-consumer subscription companies, and feeds his family local, fresh fish multiple times a week.

“I’ve changed my subscription companies a number of times based on the data that I saw. And this is the irony. I’m doing the back-of-the-envelope dollar per nutrition because I’m paying attention to different costs and packages, and I’m making an assessment of how much we’re willing to spend as a family on protein and where that fits into our budget.” — Eric Smith

THE SURPRISING CASE FOR FROZEN FOOD

Eric’s own diet has changed as a result of seeing the data. His family now sources protein through subscription companies that he has switched between based on test results, eats more fish and keeps sardines as a staple. They also eat much more frozen food. His argument is not nostalgic or ideological: when vegetables are frozen within 24 to 48 hours of harvest, freezing can be an exceptionally effective nutrient-preservation technology.
It can also solve a practical affordability problem. Eric points to frozen vegetable mixes costing around two to three dollars a bag, making it easier to combine vegetables with grains, legumes and a smaller amount of high-quality protein.

“When something comes out of the field being frozen within twenty-four to forty-eight hours, it is the single best nutrient preservation technology we have.” — Eric Smith

CAN QUALITY ACTUALLY CHANGE FUNDING IN THE FOOD SYSTEM?

The hardest part is not proving that variation exists. It is making quality affordable and important enough to change purchasing decisions at scale. Today, a nutritional test can cost roughly $500 to $1,000, which is difficult for a diversified producer growing five, ten or fifteen crops. Eric sees the path to scale as a combination of better testing economics, clearer consumer language, stronger market demand and investment that matches the slower cycles of food and agriculture.
His own experience moving from climate philanthropy and investing into operating a mission-driven company has changed how he thinks about capital. The mission cannot substitute for a functioning business. At the same time, food companies need investors willing to accept the realities of biological systems rather than forcing software-style growth expectations onto agriculture.

“We now know that food has its own funding cycle, and it needs its own view and term and investment.” — Eric Smith

Other points discussed:

• The genetic ceiling on nutritional potential, which limits how far regenerative management practices can push quality if the starting seed varietal lacks the genetic capability (e.g., cultivated highbush vs. wild blueberries).
• The critical impact of post-harvest processing on nutrient delivery, where industrial refining processes like steel-roller milling can strip all nutrition out of regenerative wheat, leaving only starch.
• The flaws of using standard USDA databases for comparison, which are often outdated by decades and rely on highly localized, supermarket-shelf samples.
• Why Edacious uses primary testing rather than relying only on nutrition databases and labels.
• How third-party testing and published results can help D2C food brands build trust.
•  Why accessibility may require substantial changes to how governments allocate food and agricultural spending.
• Why food and agriculture need longer-term capital and more appropriate return expectations.

LINKS:

• Previous conversations with Eric:
  • Eric Smith on why regenerative agriculture is a neglected climate opportunity for the Grantham Foundation
  • Eric Smith – Commoditization is the root cause of all ecological destruction and human health impacts | January 2024
• Article on The Guardian: Nutrients in our food are declining. Can regenerative agriculture save it?
• Other conversations on Nutrient Density in Food:
  • Raiza Rezende – Soil health and human health: why the science is still years behind the hype
  • Dan Barber – AI-Powered natural breeding: The End of GMOs, Gene Editing, and CRISPR?

More about our guest:
Follow Eric on Linkedin

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The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.