That article is quite odd. It does not misrepresent the studies that it references. This [1][2] is the primary one, the 2004 paper from Davis et al. But the paper makes it very clear, as does the article in its discussion of the paper, that the main culprit is believed to largely come down to breed selection. It does consider soil quality and ultimately dismisses it as the main variable:
"The apparent overall decreases for some nutrients are interesting and potentially of concern, but like Mayer and Johnson,
we urge caution about their interpretation. Mineral decreases
are popularly predicted for, or blamed on, mineral deficiencies
in soil and fertilizer [5], but without sufficient consideration of
contrary evidence and other possibilities.
[Snipping various scientific evidence they mention]
Factors other than soil mineral concentrations seem to have primary control of food mineral contents for
the foods and minerals studied here. (The minerals I and Se are
well known exceptions to this rule.) In the case of Fe, depletion is
never an issue; instead, the issue is the ability of the plant to
acquire the Fe that it needs. The fraction of soluble Fe in soils
may be only about 10^-13 of total soil Fe."
In general, there seems to be an inverse relationship between nutrition and yield: higher nutrition + lower yield, or lower nutrition + higher yield. It's not hard to guess which we pick. But then the article (similar to another published in Discover magazine) focuses entirely and exclusively on soil quality as the primary issue.
"The apparent overall decreases for some nutrients are interesting and potentially of concern, but like Mayer and Johnson, we urge caution about their interpretation. Mineral decreases are popularly predicted for, or blamed on, mineral deficiencies in soil and fertilizer [5], but without sufficient consideration of contrary evidence and other possibilities.
[Snipping various scientific evidence they mention]
Factors other than soil mineral concentrations seem to have primary control of food mineral contents for the foods and minerals studied here. (The minerals I and Se are well known exceptions to this rule.) In the case of Fe, depletion is never an issue; instead, the issue is the ability of the plant to acquire the Fe that it needs. The fraction of soluble Fe in soils may be only about 10^-13 of total soil Fe."
In general, there seems to be an inverse relationship between nutrition and yield: higher nutrition + lower yield, or lower nutrition + higher yield. It's not hard to guess which we pick. But then the article (similar to another published in Discover magazine) focuses entirely and exclusively on soil quality as the primary issue.
[1] - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15637215/
[2] (SciHubbed) - https://sci-hub.st/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15637215/