Hollow Harvests

How pervasive toxicity threatens
human and planetary survival

Abstract image representing the complexity of environmental toxicity with the caption "The Invisible Tsunami"
Cereal yields are up 215% per hectare since the 1960s, but more than 2 billion people have at least one clinical micronutrient deficiency.
Our latest report is the first time that a single report has attempted to analyse the broader collective problem and solution spaces of chemical toxicity answering the questions: how and why are toxic chemicals produced, how do they get into our bodies and the environment, and how do they affect the health of humans and other organisms?

Over eight months, we conducted an extensive analysis, including reviewing countless peer-reviewed studies and 50+ interviews with global experts. This research shows that the impacts of chemical toxicity are largely underestimated, contributing to increasing cancer rates, declining fertility, and a surge in chronic diseases, alongside ecosystem damage.

The overarching conclusion is that chemical toxicity is an underestimated risk to society and deserves significantly more attention and resources. 

But this report isn't just about the problem; it's a call to action for solutions. We highlight critical industry, regulatory gaps and, most importantly, identify key areas for innovation and urgent funding that can put us on the right path to increase our understanding and make positive changes where it's most needed.

We identified three opportunity areas that demand solutions: pesticides (herbicides and insecticide), food contact materials, personal care products.

Key takeaways include:
  • In collaboration with The Mark Leonard Trust, we produced Hollow Harvests to examine how decades of breeding and farming for yield have left many crops with 20 to 50% less of several key nutrients. A carrot with half the potassium means eating twice as many carrots to get the same benefit.
  • In countries like the UK, this decline is partly masked by eating more, but that buffer is shrinking. GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are projected to reach over 100 million users in higher-income countries by 2030 and reduce food intake by 16 to 39%, while rising CO2 and degraded soils threaten to push nutrient levels down further. 
  • Together, these pressures could leave around 5 million UK working-age adults below safe levels of essential vitamins and minerals. However, raising crop nutrient density by over 30% could offset the dietary effects of GLP-1 drugs and roughly halve several existing UK deficiency rates.
To learn more, you can download both the executive summary and the full report below. If you’re curious about how to create an impactful and commercially viable company in this space, we’d love to hear from you!
Where the opportunity lies

As GLP-1 use shrinks portions, food businesses will compete on how much nutrition each bite delivers, creating demand for nutrient-dense crops and ingredients. 
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Fewer than ⅓ of bread-wheat varieties released since the 1960s meet the recommended zinc targets, leaving room for breeding programmes that select for nutrient density alongside yield.

Rebuilding soil can improve nutrient density, yields, and climate resilience all at once.

Explore the executive summary and full report below to dive deeper into our findings. If you want to build a venture that drives real impact and commercial success in this domain, reach out to us!

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About Deep Science Ventures

Deep Science Ventures (DSV) is creating a future where humanity and the planet thrive, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures. Deep Science Ventures operates in 4 sectors: Agriculture, Climate, Computation and Pharmaceuticals, tackling the challenges defining those areas by taking a first-principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.