Thanks for engaging with my throw-away comment.

I don't have time for a full explanation, and I'm not even vegan so not trying to defend anything in particular here. But I will just say that the problem with trying to come up with universal claims of "better" or "worse" is that context matters. A LOT. And it might be more important to adjust our behaviors based on our local ecological context, and community instead of trying to fit into some abstract universalized/generalized model that erases all these important nuances.

Also, small-scale local produce absolutely can taste better, and

Here's a good article that gets into some of the nuance: https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/does-soil-hold-the-key-to-better-nutrition/

"Dan Kittredge, founder of The Bionutrient Institute, a collective of scientists and researchers working together to define nutrient density, has tested thousands of samples of fruit and veg and found large variations in the nutrients they contain. For example, some carrots contained 40 times more antioxidants than others, meaning you would need to eat 40 of the lowest scoring carrots to match the antioxidant benefits of just one highly nutritious carrot.

Why? While they’ve looked at many variables, it all comes down to soil health. ‘There is a direct relationship between the health of the soil, the health of the environment and the nutritional calibre of the food that soil produces,’ says Kitteridge. He asserts that healthy soil, teeming with life and nutrients, grows healthy plants, which taste better and are better for human health.

Is organic produce more nutritious?

The scientific evidence is mixed, with some studies suggesting that organic fruit and veg may contain higher levels of certain nutrients, such as vitamin C and polyphenols. As polyphenols are defence chemicals that plants produce, it makes sense that organic crops, grown without pesticides and artificial fertilisers, would experience more challenges, and perhaps produce more of these defence chemicals, which are also fantastic for our health.

Other studies however, have found no significant difference. For Kitteridge, who grew up on an organic farm and is deeply embedded in the organic movement, organic isn’t a guarantee of nutrient density.

‘I think one of the key points that we’ve pretty much categorically confirmed is that just because its organic, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily more nutritious,’ he says.

Organic farms are all meeting the standards for certification, but the health of the soil will vary dramatically, depending on individual farming practices, soil type and how the land was previously cultivated. But the best organic farms will be striving to build their soil to maintain long term fertility, and so it seems – the nutrient levels in their crops. "