I realize this is 2 posts in 2 days on the same topic, but if its worthy enough to make headlines two days in a row then its worthy enough for me to comment on. Especially when it only proves that the U.S. government is simply chasing its tail when it comes to controlling food poisoning.
Today's headline indicating food poising is on the rise in the US is not, nor should it be, shocking news to anyone. Every month there is at least one headline making mainstream news regarding some sort of food recall over food poisoning or "possible food contamination".
The bigger story here however is not necessarily the number of food poisoning instances but rather how our brainless government agencies continues to police the issue. Case in point...
Claiming that "Many of the bugs that sicken people live naturally in the digestive
systems of animals, including people. Outbreaks of disease have been
linked to unclean slaughtering processes and unhygienic meat handling." , which leaves much of the blame on slaughter houses is more of a scapegoat conclusion in an effort to avoid the BIGGER problem... Factory Farming!
Factory farming, CAFO's (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) to be exact, breed disease. This is where the problem starts; not at the slaughter house where these sick unsanitary animals are brought in droves to be slaughtered and packaged. With thousands of livestock standing, feeding, sleeping, and defecating in the same fenced in or caged in cramped area, the resulting food poisoning is an unavoidable consequence. When the skin of cattle is literally caked with crap, teeming with harmful bacteria, as they're sent to the slaughter house, passing this on to the consumer is once again unavoidable.
It really doesn't take a genius to make the connection. And with government officials blatantly stating the obvious, "Many of the bugs that sicken people live naturally in the digestive
systems of animals" without actually addressing this problem only further adds to their ignorance.
It is not a secret that factory farmed animals are fed unhealthy diets typically consisting of GMO grains & soy, rather than what nature intended (pasture and forage). As with humans, the immune system of an animal resides in the gut, and just as with humans an unhealthy diet that promotes inflammation and disease rather than promoting healthy gut flora can only lead to disaster. And NO, giving these animals a cocktail of pharmaceuticals with every meal to try and lessen the chance of disease from occurring is NOT the answer!
In fact the answer, just as with humans, starts with a healthy diet. It's an unavoidable truth. The only thing an unhealthy diet leads to in both humans and farm animals is profit for those that fund poor diet (chemical companies, pharmaceutical companies, processed food companies) and disease for those consume it!
Showing posts with label Grass-fed Free-Range. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grass-fed Free-Range. Show all posts
Friday, April 19, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Why tracking sick animals is not the answer
I read an article yesterday about the USDA's new program to track farm animals. Their reasoning is that by tracking the farm animal's movement (from CAFO to store) they will be able to better address contaminated food issues when they occur. This is an expensive task that will no doubt waist tons of money and resources, with costs guaranteed to be passed down to the consumer in some way shape or form, all in an effort to aid a useless government agency in doing a job ASS Backwards! Excuse my language...
Wouldn't it make far better sense to put the money and resources into fixing the problem (factory farming) instead of wasting far more money trying to address the unavoidable resulting problems created by our wrong doing in the first place?
Obviously to anyone with half a brain the answer is yes, but remember we are talking about a government agency here... NO BRAINS NECESSARY!
When animals are allowed to free range and not forced to live in overcrowded inhuman unsanitary conditions like cages and CAFOs, and when they're allowed to consume a diet nature intended (pasture and forage) with healthy vitamin D rich sun rays warming their feathers and fur while giving back to the land as much if not more than they take, we ensure that Natures perfect 'zero waste system' benefits all parties involved.
On the other hand when we feel we have the right to treat farm animals like widgets on a factory assembly line, then we are forced to pay the price... with interest!
Do the right thing and support your local organic sustainable farmer! Only then will you truly know where your food came from.
Wouldn't it make far better sense to put the money and resources into fixing the problem (factory farming) instead of wasting far more money trying to address the unavoidable resulting problems created by our wrong doing in the first place?
Obviously to anyone with half a brain the answer is yes, but remember we are talking about a government agency here... NO BRAINS NECESSARY!
When animals are allowed to free range and not forced to live in overcrowded inhuman unsanitary conditions like cages and CAFOs, and when they're allowed to consume a diet nature intended (pasture and forage) with healthy vitamin D rich sun rays warming their feathers and fur while giving back to the land as much if not more than they take, we ensure that Natures perfect 'zero waste system' benefits all parties involved.
On the other hand when we feel we have the right to treat farm animals like widgets on a factory assembly line, then we are forced to pay the price... with interest!
Do the right thing and support your local organic sustainable farmer! Only then will you truly know where your food came from.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Factory farming promotes disease!
In a natural untouched setting you have herbivores, the grazers of the world, tending to our perennial prairie land pastures eating herbs and fertilizing the soil all while miraculously turning cellulose (plant matter) into edible fat and protein for all of the many carnivorous and omnivorous creatures that can't. You then have nature's cleanup crew, flocks of omnivorous foul, closely tailing the heard scratching through the dung left behind looking for any edible insect that might be on their menu. And finally you have nature's way of balancing out just the right amount of herbivores per square acre... carnivores. Without these meat / animal-fat craving creatures of the world (and this includes the omnivorous human), the land would quickly be overrun by plant eaters resulting in a landscape of barren desert waist land due to over grazing, and ultimately leading to many starving animals dependent upon this otherwise healthy fertile soil.
And each individual team (herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore) on this common playing field holds a very important and distinct role dictated by these simple dietary constraints, better yet efficiencies; herbivores eat herbs, carnivores eat herbivorous animal fat and protein, and omnivores consume both. And despite each players unique role in this game of sustainability, the very thing that sets each apart from the other (their gut) holds one very important commonality spanning them all; a healthy gut dependent upon healthy bacterial environment provides a healthy immune system, and ultimately a healthy relatively disease free existence.
Despite the resilience of this healthy highly efficient zero-waist system we humans have figured out how to throw a very destructive wrench into this otherwise perfect running machine, and at such a startlingly damaging rate. Disease is not natural, not at the frequency and efficiency at which it now wreaks havoc on our bodies and our world, and yet we have managed to make life threatening diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases a devastating and regular occurrence in our lives.
The healthy balanced gut of a mammal is paradise for (healthy) bacteria, trillions of them, and the tasks they perform (braking down our food so we can utilize its nutrients) is probably the most important job within the body. Without balanced and efficient digestion, inflammation wreaks havoc on the stomach lining and intestinal walls changing the gut environment from 'friendly bacteria' to 'harmful bacteria' severely compromising the immune system allowing disease to follow.
So who would think that among these three very distinct digestive groups of mammals (herbivore, carnivore, omnivore) that one common food would be poisoning them all, but it's true! Grains are not naturally on the menu for any of these groups of mammals, and yet with the advent of factory farming it has become a major food source for all. In this unnatural unsustainable unhealthy farming model (factory farming) we feed cheap GMO grains to cattle (herbivores) as well as pigs and chickens (omnivores), depriving them of what they naturally need to survive a healthy disease free life. Hence the heavy use of antibiotics within factory farming. And we (omnivores) as well as our carnivorous pets (cats and dogs) are not immune to this poisoning. In fact we get it from all sides. For humans, we make whole grains an important part of our diets because that's what we've been told is healthy, and any animal protein we do eat is from unhealthy omega-6 rich (grain fed) meat, dairy, and eggs. And as for our pets just look at the ingredients on the package of food (poison) that your feeding them... not only are grains on there in one way shape or form, if they're not the first ingredient they're almost always in the top 5. And even if you feed them "grain-free" food, unless the animal protein listed comes from organic pastured meats they're still getting their share of poisoning just as we are.
Grains are high in omega-6 which promotes inflammation, they spike insulin levels due to their glucose content, and are very difficult to digest.
There is a solution to this global problem that is factory farming... local organic non-GMO sustainable farming! When we allow animals to eat what nature intended, the result is a healthy relatively disease free life. This goes for herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores alike.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Joel Salatin and the Future of Food
Watch this interview between Dr. Mercola and the leading pioneer in sustainable farming, Joel Salatin, as they discuss the future of our food and the importance of a locally based systems, in contrast to the larger industrialized factory system that is currently failing both people and environment alike on a global scale.
We can make a difference in changing our failing food system simply by being proactive when choosing where our food comes from.
Choose Locally Grown Sustainably farmed over factory made and factory farmed.
Choose Pastured meats and dairy over feedlot and grain fed.
Choose Organic non-GMO over its chemically fertilized herbicide sprayed round-up ready counterpart.
It doesn't take an executive order by the President or an act of Congress or even a bill to be passed in order to make a difference, the only tool we as the consumer need to change the future of our food is the power and freedom of choice!
We can make a difference in changing our failing food system simply by being proactive when choosing where our food comes from.
Choose Locally Grown Sustainably farmed over factory made and factory farmed.
Choose Pastured meats and dairy over feedlot and grain fed.
Choose Organic non-GMO over its chemically fertilized herbicide sprayed round-up ready counterpart.
It doesn't take an executive order by the President or an act of Congress or even a bill to be passed in order to make a difference, the only tool we as the consumer need to change the future of our food is the power and freedom of choice!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Drought is kryptonite to factory farming
I think this year's drought that has hit American Agriculture so hard, with "half of the US counties deemed natural disaster areas", only strengthens the argument that factory farming cannot efficiently feed a nation.
When nearly all of the meat (beef, chicken, turkey, pork, and farm raised fish) produced and sold in the US depends on annual monocrops (GM corn and soy) as the primary feed source, saying we have all our 'non-cage-free' eggs in one basket would be a profound understatement. With the majority of the hundreds of millions of acres of farm land stretching across our nation unnaturally occupied by one of two crops, our nation's food system is greatly dependent upon four things; good rainfall, chemicals, chemicals, chemicals...
Nature dictates the rules; diversity (polyculture over monoculture), fertile soil, and rain. A successful organic sustainable farm helps guarantee the first two requirements are met, while factory farming on the other hand requires chemicals and GM seed to accomplish the same feat. With the soil continuously depleted of all its nutrients due to harmful deep tilling in order to make way for overly dense populations of single crops, any favorable yield requires unnatural help. Collectively these infertile farm lands require billions of tons of chemicals in the form of fertilizer to add much needed nitrogen, herbicides to prevent the only thing that effortlessly chooses to populate these otherwise barren deserts (weeds), pesticides to kill all of nature's opportunistic insects that effortlessly feed on these helpless nutrient lacking crops, and of course the round-up ready GM seeds.
And even with all this chemical warfare on the side of factory farming, all can easily be lost if the winds of change choose to blow the rain clouds away. Sure, sustainable farming requires water just as factory farming does, but in a sustainable farming model you have smaller, local organic farms with more pasture than monocrop. You creatively use the landscape given to you and gently mold it into something that favors your sustainable farming needs. Instead of knocking down and plowing over all standing trees to make room for fields of corn or soy, you leave a nice thick perimeter encircling your pastures (sustainable = pastured), promoting refuge for smaller animals that can feed the predators that would otherwise prey on your livestock. The trees and brush also do a good job of feeding the soil as well as soaking up any pollutants that may be in the ground. Utilize low lying areas to create ponds instead of tilling and seeding. Use livestock (pigs and chickens) to till for gardens instead of heavy equipment. Plant only enough grains to feed those omnivorous animals that can consume them as part of the diet, like chickens and pigs. Let Pasture dependent animals (cattle) graze, feeding them hey in the winter months not grain. Use proper pasture rotation methods as practiced by successful organic sustainable farmers such as Joel Salatin, and make it your goal to build topsoil not deplete it.
When nearly all of the meat (beef, chicken, turkey, pork, and farm raised fish) produced and sold in the US depends on annual monocrops (GM corn and soy) as the primary feed source, saying we have all our 'non-cage-free' eggs in one basket would be a profound understatement. With the majority of the hundreds of millions of acres of farm land stretching across our nation unnaturally occupied by one of two crops, our nation's food system is greatly dependent upon four things; good rainfall, chemicals, chemicals, chemicals...
Nature dictates the rules; diversity (polyculture over monoculture), fertile soil, and rain. A successful organic sustainable farm helps guarantee the first two requirements are met, while factory farming on the other hand requires chemicals and GM seed to accomplish the same feat. With the soil continuously depleted of all its nutrients due to harmful deep tilling in order to make way for overly dense populations of single crops, any favorable yield requires unnatural help. Collectively these infertile farm lands require billions of tons of chemicals in the form of fertilizer to add much needed nitrogen, herbicides to prevent the only thing that effortlessly chooses to populate these otherwise barren deserts (weeds), pesticides to kill all of nature's opportunistic insects that effortlessly feed on these helpless nutrient lacking crops, and of course the round-up ready GM seeds.
And even with all this chemical warfare on the side of factory farming, all can easily be lost if the winds of change choose to blow the rain clouds away. Sure, sustainable farming requires water just as factory farming does, but in a sustainable farming model you have smaller, local organic farms with more pasture than monocrop. You creatively use the landscape given to you and gently mold it into something that favors your sustainable farming needs. Instead of knocking down and plowing over all standing trees to make room for fields of corn or soy, you leave a nice thick perimeter encircling your pastures (sustainable = pastured), promoting refuge for smaller animals that can feed the predators that would otherwise prey on your livestock. The trees and brush also do a good job of feeding the soil as well as soaking up any pollutants that may be in the ground. Utilize low lying areas to create ponds instead of tilling and seeding. Use livestock (pigs and chickens) to till for gardens instead of heavy equipment. Plant only enough grains to feed those omnivorous animals that can consume them as part of the diet, like chickens and pigs. Let Pasture dependent animals (cattle) graze, feeding them hey in the winter months not grain. Use proper pasture rotation methods as practiced by successful organic sustainable farmers such as Joel Salatin, and make it your goal to build topsoil not deplete it.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Drought plus annual-mono-agriculturalistic society equals disaster!
I can't help but wonder if this severe drought that much of the U.S. is experiencing, isn't hitting the country's food industry even harder than it would if our agriculture wasn't so dependent upon annual monocrops?
Much of our countries "farm land" is covered by either GM corn or soy; that's hundreds of millions of acres of land that if untouched would be occupied by perennial forests or prairie land, both of which fair far better during periods of extremes. Instead these over plowed, over sprayed and otherwise infertile barren stretches of our landscape are a perfect recipe for disaster. There is a reason that annual monocultures such as these do not exist in nature... But we (humans) have created a society that is entirely dependent upon them for survival.
With nearly every non-organic processed pre-packaged food containing in some way shape or form (GM soy and corn), and all non-organic fresh or frozen sold, as well as all factory farmed (grain/soy fed) meats and dairy sold in the U.S. coming from our amber waves of grain (and legume), there is no escaping the devastating effects currently plaguing much of the country in the face of this dry season.
Yet even with the current drought, dried up fields of corn, and the anticipated inevitable increased food prices making headlines, our society still believes we can "save the world" with deforestation, damming of rivers, and destroying of otherwise healthy perennial pollyculture ecosystems, by simply selling our souls to the idea of factory farming and it's puppet master Monsanto.
I would like to restate the obvious in an effort to save our food industry and ultimately ourselves, from ourselves... support local sustainable farming! Buy only locally raised organic pastured meats, dairy, and eggs. Stand up for your health and that of our long overly abused planet, and say no to GMOs!
Much of our countries "farm land" is covered by either GM corn or soy; that's hundreds of millions of acres of land that if untouched would be occupied by perennial forests or prairie land, both of which fair far better during periods of extremes. Instead these over plowed, over sprayed and otherwise infertile barren stretches of our landscape are a perfect recipe for disaster. There is a reason that annual monocultures such as these do not exist in nature... But we (humans) have created a society that is entirely dependent upon them for survival.
With nearly every non-organic processed pre-packaged food containing in some way shape or form (GM soy and corn), and all non-organic fresh or frozen sold, as well as all factory farmed (grain/soy fed) meats and dairy sold in the U.S. coming from our amber waves of grain (and legume), there is no escaping the devastating effects currently plaguing much of the country in the face of this dry season.
Yet even with the current drought, dried up fields of corn, and the anticipated inevitable increased food prices making headlines, our society still believes we can "save the world" with deforestation, damming of rivers, and destroying of otherwise healthy perennial pollyculture ecosystems, by simply selling our souls to the idea of factory farming and it's puppet master Monsanto.
I would like to restate the obvious in an effort to save our food industry and ultimately ourselves, from ourselves... support local sustainable farming! Buy only locally raised organic pastured meats, dairy, and eggs. Stand up for your health and that of our long overly abused planet, and say no to GMOs!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
What can be more natural then feeding fish soy...
Since 1995 when Monsanto, the maker of Round-up, introduced their latest and possibly most deadly creation; GM (round-up ready) soy beans, they have been slowly and quite effectively taking over (infecting) our food industry.
With help from the US government and their desire to be at the "leading edge" of biogenetics research, the United States has become the biggest advocate for this man made cancer, accounting for well over 50% of all GM crops worldwide. Rivaled by only GM corn, genetically modified soy is used in some way shape or form in all non-organic processed foods, and is nearly unavoidable when shopping at your local grocer. All non-organic non-pastured meats (beef, chicken, pork, turkey) as well as dairy produced and sold in this country, are fed GM soy (as well as corn) as the majority of their diets. So from packaged goods to fresh produce to packaged and fresh meats and dairy, you just can't escape this hidden cancer.
So what could possibly make things worse?
How about if Monsanto, the leading maker of GMO's, and agricultural factory-farmed food conglomerate Cargill put their evil strengths together in a push to make GM soy the primary feed for factory farmed fish...
And that's just what they're doing! As if we needed more of a reason not to buy factory farmed fish, with its overly crowded overly populated disease infested conditions, the last thing this unhealthy population of fish need is GM soy added to their diets. Not only would it be detrimental to the health of those fish fed this poisonous unnatural diet, but it would be devastating to wild marine life and ecosystems due to run-off of both uneaten food as well as the abundance of waist produced by these fish, not to mention the pesticides within the GMO itself.
Don't give the last piece of the food puzzle to these profit, greed, and world-domination driven corporations.
Say no to Factory Pharming!
Support your local organic sustainable farmer!
With help from the US government and their desire to be at the "leading edge" of biogenetics research, the United States has become the biggest advocate for this man made cancer, accounting for well over 50% of all GM crops worldwide. Rivaled by only GM corn, genetically modified soy is used in some way shape or form in all non-organic processed foods, and is nearly unavoidable when shopping at your local grocer. All non-organic non-pastured meats (beef, chicken, pork, turkey) as well as dairy produced and sold in this country, are fed GM soy (as well as corn) as the majority of their diets. So from packaged goods to fresh produce to packaged and fresh meats and dairy, you just can't escape this hidden cancer.
So what could possibly make things worse?
How about if Monsanto, the leading maker of GMO's, and agricultural factory-farmed food conglomerate Cargill put their evil strengths together in a push to make GM soy the primary feed for factory farmed fish...
And that's just what they're doing! As if we needed more of a reason not to buy factory farmed fish, with its overly crowded overly populated disease infested conditions, the last thing this unhealthy population of fish need is GM soy added to their diets. Not only would it be detrimental to the health of those fish fed this poisonous unnatural diet, but it would be devastating to wild marine life and ecosystems due to run-off of both uneaten food as well as the abundance of waist produced by these fish, not to mention the pesticides within the GMO itself.
Don't give the last piece of the food puzzle to these profit, greed, and world-domination driven corporations.
Say no to Factory Pharming!
Support your local organic sustainable farmer!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Bee proactive when it comes to the disappearance of our bees
I posted last year sometime about my thoughts on the disappearance of our nations honeybees, and what I felt was the culprit to this ultimately devastating trend. I felt that based on what I've learned about our nations corrupt evil profit driven food system (factory pharming, GMO's, toxic chemicals, pesticides) that the answer to what their calling CCD (colony collapse disorder) was right in front of us. It seemed quite obvious to me at the time, that the same thing that has killed the majority of this worlds fertile soil, and the same thing that is promoting disease and fatality amongst humans who consume this nutrient deficient toxic food, might very well be the same thing that is mysteriously killing bees, and now I see that others have assumed the same.
One person in particular, an Illinois bee keeper by the name of Mr. Ingram, had been doing research for the past 15 years on a hunch that factory pharming, more specifically the use of pesticides and herbicides, are the cause.
"Ingram believes the destruction of his bees and hives is more likely to be related to his research into the effect of Roundup on honey bees. He claims some 250 of his colonies have been killed off over the years by Monsanto's broad-spectrum herbicide, used in large quantities on both conventional- and genetically engineered crops. Ingram's research shows that Roundup can lead to what's called chilled brood, which is an entirely different scenario."
If you know anything about this pure evil that is Monsanto and their ties and influence with Department of Agriculture on both the state and federal levels, you wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that once word of his research got out, the Illinois Department of Agriculture seized (stole and destroyed) his hives conveniently sabotaging the past 15years worth of research against Monsanto and their use of roundup as the cause. What's behind Illinois stealing local hero's bee hives?
So what can you do you ask?
Be Proactive! Stop being ignorant about where your food comes from and at what cost, and stop supporting factory pharming! Start supporting your local organic sustainable farmers for all your pastured meats, eggs, and dairy. Buy only locally grown organic produce. Plant a garden for that matter, and fight the urge to use any herbicide or pesticide, and instead vow to take the organic rout. Raise your own flock (2 or 3 is all you need) of backyard pastured laying hens, and enjoy the health benefits and amazing taste of a real egg. Reintroduce yourself with something that you've been depriving yourself of for all these years... real food!
One person in particular, an Illinois bee keeper by the name of Mr. Ingram, had been doing research for the past 15 years on a hunch that factory pharming, more specifically the use of pesticides and herbicides, are the cause.
"Ingram believes the destruction of his bees and hives is more likely to be related to his research into the effect of Roundup on honey bees. He claims some 250 of his colonies have been killed off over the years by Monsanto's broad-spectrum herbicide, used in large quantities on both conventional- and genetically engineered crops. Ingram's research shows that Roundup can lead to what's called chilled brood, which is an entirely different scenario."
If you know anything about this pure evil that is Monsanto and their ties and influence with Department of Agriculture on both the state and federal levels, you wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that once word of his research got out, the Illinois Department of Agriculture seized (stole and destroyed) his hives conveniently sabotaging the past 15years worth of research against Monsanto and their use of roundup as the cause. What's behind Illinois stealing local hero's bee hives?
So what can you do you ask?
Be Proactive! Stop being ignorant about where your food comes from and at what cost, and stop supporting factory pharming! Start supporting your local organic sustainable farmers for all your pastured meats, eggs, and dairy. Buy only locally grown organic produce. Plant a garden for that matter, and fight the urge to use any herbicide or pesticide, and instead vow to take the organic rout. Raise your own flock (2 or 3 is all you need) of backyard pastured laying hens, and enjoy the health benefits and amazing taste of a real egg. Reintroduce yourself with something that you've been depriving yourself of for all these years... real food!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
De-Evolution
We've all heard of evolution; from life in the ocean to life on land; from life on four legs to life on two; it's a subject whose origin and validity has been observed researched and debated to death. Taking a simplistic view however, we usually relate the "evolutionary process" to one in which an organism or animal changes over many generations in such a way that this change leads to improvement in one way or another. Darwin stated that through natural selection life on earth has evolved in such a way that only the most dominant or strongest or beneficial traits needed for survival would be passed on to the next generation, slowly but surely paving the way to modern day animals and fish and humans.
Is this the case however when it comes to the evolution of the human diet?
Sure you can say that the human diet has evolved. Evolved from one driven by a pure basic natural need for nourishment to an industrialized factory driven diet of overly processed foods replacing the basic dietary needs of the body with chemicals and toxins. And with this dramatic change in our diets over such a short period of time, evolutionarily speaking, we have also seen the evolution of disease and the toll it has taken on this modern industrialized nutrient starved human race, rendering our society one plagued by obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and chronic inflammatory diseases of every kind.
This however seems to contradict ours simplistic view of evolution. If humans are the most evolved species on the planet than why have we let our diets take such an unnatural and blatantly detrimental path. Unless of course this is nature's way of weeding out a specie that has proven to be toxic to both nature and themselves alike.
If this is the case then I say its time for the "De-Evolution" of the human diet!
It is time to replace those chemicals (fillers, preservative, GMO's) with pure natural organic nutrient rich un-fooled-around-with ingredients. It's time to step off this indiscriminately destructive fast moving industrialized food train that our "highly advanced" society is riding full-steam-ahead and get back on track with the basics of our dietary needs. It's time to stop exploiting this chauvinistic view that the human race sits alone above all other species as are given right to do as we please in the name of food, regardless of the destruction in our wake, and wise up to the fact that when it comes to our health (life) we are not independent but rather dependent. The truth is there is something like 10 trillion bacteria making up the human body, which is 10 times the number of individual cells that actually make up the human body. So biologically speaking, at the cellular level, we are not even the dominant organism when it comes to ourselves! Maybe if we step back and look at our dietary "evolutionary advancement", we will see that from a health perspective we haven't advanced at all.
I don't mean we must a revert back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors eating nothing but raw meat from fresh kills, but we can take away something very important from our distant past, and that is our basic primal need for animal protein, animal fat, and fat soluble vitamins. As a hunter gatherer you ate to survive which meant giving your body what it wants and needs! Once we lay this crucial dietary foundation consisting of healthy pastured meats in place we can move up the timeline to the advent of agriculture. Agriculture has been around for approximately 10-12k years, and although a mere blip on our evolutionary timeline, when compared to factory farming and industrialized "pharming" which have only been driving our food industry at this pace since around the time of WWII (barely an evolutionary blink of the eye) we can safely say that there is a place in our diets for organic sustainable farming. But even here we have to travel back in time to the agricultural beginning when we had only one way to preserve our food, lacto fermentation. It was this basic natural process, not chemical preservatives or genetically modified organisms or even refrigeration for that matter, that not only kept our food from spoiling but fed our bodies with the healthy bacteria that we need to survive.
Lacto fermented foods have been shown to be far more abundant in strands of healthy bacteria in a single serving than most over the counter pharmaceutical grade probiotics contain per container. Add this to the enhanced nutrient content and absence of most toxins and anti-nutrients compared to non-fermented foods, and you can quickly see why fermented foods are so important to the human diet. Our gut is our immune system, and when we have an unbalanced unhealthy gut we are easy prey for bad bacteria taking over our bodies. Without the correct healthy ratio of beneficial bacteria to unhealthy bacteria within our bodies, we begin to suffer from the many chronic diseases and disorders that the modern human diet promotes.
So do your body, and the trillions of bacteria living within that make life possible a favor and help De-Evolve when it comes to your diet.
Is this the case however when it comes to the evolution of the human diet?
Sure you can say that the human diet has evolved. Evolved from one driven by a pure basic natural need for nourishment to an industrialized factory driven diet of overly processed foods replacing the basic dietary needs of the body with chemicals and toxins. And with this dramatic change in our diets over such a short period of time, evolutionarily speaking, we have also seen the evolution of disease and the toll it has taken on this modern industrialized nutrient starved human race, rendering our society one plagued by obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and chronic inflammatory diseases of every kind.
This however seems to contradict ours simplistic view of evolution. If humans are the most evolved species on the planet than why have we let our diets take such an unnatural and blatantly detrimental path. Unless of course this is nature's way of weeding out a specie that has proven to be toxic to both nature and themselves alike.
If this is the case then I say its time for the "De-Evolution" of the human diet!
It is time to replace those chemicals (fillers, preservative, GMO's) with pure natural organic nutrient rich un-fooled-around-with ingredients. It's time to step off this indiscriminately destructive fast moving industrialized food train that our "highly advanced" society is riding full-steam-ahead and get back on track with the basics of our dietary needs. It's time to stop exploiting this chauvinistic view that the human race sits alone above all other species as are given right to do as we please in the name of food, regardless of the destruction in our wake, and wise up to the fact that when it comes to our health (life) we are not independent but rather dependent. The truth is there is something like 10 trillion bacteria making up the human body, which is 10 times the number of individual cells that actually make up the human body. So biologically speaking, at the cellular level, we are not even the dominant organism when it comes to ourselves! Maybe if we step back and look at our dietary "evolutionary advancement", we will see that from a health perspective we haven't advanced at all.
I don't mean we must a revert back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors eating nothing but raw meat from fresh kills, but we can take away something very important from our distant past, and that is our basic primal need for animal protein, animal fat, and fat soluble vitamins. As a hunter gatherer you ate to survive which meant giving your body what it wants and needs! Once we lay this crucial dietary foundation consisting of healthy pastured meats in place we can move up the timeline to the advent of agriculture. Agriculture has been around for approximately 10-12k years, and although a mere blip on our evolutionary timeline, when compared to factory farming and industrialized "pharming" which have only been driving our food industry at this pace since around the time of WWII (barely an evolutionary blink of the eye) we can safely say that there is a place in our diets for organic sustainable farming. But even here we have to travel back in time to the agricultural beginning when we had only one way to preserve our food, lacto fermentation. It was this basic natural process, not chemical preservatives or genetically modified organisms or even refrigeration for that matter, that not only kept our food from spoiling but fed our bodies with the healthy bacteria that we need to survive.
Lacto fermented foods have been shown to be far more abundant in strands of healthy bacteria in a single serving than most over the counter pharmaceutical grade probiotics contain per container. Add this to the enhanced nutrient content and absence of most toxins and anti-nutrients compared to non-fermented foods, and you can quickly see why fermented foods are so important to the human diet. Our gut is our immune system, and when we have an unbalanced unhealthy gut we are easy prey for bad bacteria taking over our bodies. Without the correct healthy ratio of beneficial bacteria to unhealthy bacteria within our bodies, we begin to suffer from the many chronic diseases and disorders that the modern human diet promotes.
So do your body, and the trillions of bacteria living within that make life possible a favor and help De-Evolve when it comes to your diet.
Monday, June 4, 2012
The Circle of Life
That first hawk attempt was magnificent despite its intentions when you consider the power and stealthiness of this formidable raptor. Somehow though with its intense focus and determination to feed, it failed to see the poultry netting and wound up a tangled mess. You can imagine our surprise coming home one evening to find a hawk caught up and hanging upside down in the fence. We held no ill will towards our unwanted guest though, and carefully untangled it and brought it to the bird sanctuary not too far from our house.
Hawk attempt number two however did not end as well for our flock. Although the attack was interrupted as my wife ran to the aid of the chickens and their distressed calls, it was not a battle without casualty. One of our original four birds "Crooked" had made her last stand as she bravely stood alerting the others of the danger. Or that's how we would like to believe it went down...
Appropriately named, she was one of the original four that we acquired with our coop and was a perfect example of the misguided farming practice of clipping the beaks. Despite this inhumane practice and handicap, it's amazing how efficient a forager/hunter they still are.
Now we don't make it a habit of naming each member of our flock. I think of our (human-chicken) relationship more as symbiotic one, each depending on the other for something. They allow us to keep them contained and eat their eggs, and we offer them our yard and all of the food (worms, bugs, grass, berries...) they can forage and sunlight they can soak up in the process. I like to believe we give them the best lives they could have as a domesticated farm animal, that is until their time has come to an end even if it's prematurely.
In the end she became food for the very yard she called home, giving back to the earth with interest feeding the countless worms and microorganisms that are so vital to any organic pasture.
Monday, April 9, 2012
The medical field is lacking... nutritionally speaking!
After looking over a menu for patients at a local hospital while visiting my wife (following an unfortunate accident), I came to realize one scary fact; nutrition and modern medicine DO NOT go hand-in-hand. The menu read like any typical restaurant menu, with no shortage of elaborate meal options for every course. And like any restaurant menu there were a few healthy choices sprinkled in amongst plenty of unhealthy meal options; soda, sugary deserts, and nothing organic. The most troubling thing however was the 'heart healthy' labels next to unhealthy foods. Now I realize that expecting a hospital to come to the realization that this disturbing global push for the mass consumption of whole grains, an otherwise unnatural food source for the human body to properly digest that has only been a part of our diets since the advent of agriculture (a mere blip on our evolutionary timeline), are more damaging in the long run (promoting inflammation) then they are "heart healthy" is a long shot, but to label everything with the words 'egg substitute' in the ingredients as healthy... disturbing indeed!
With such a disconnect between the medical field and the bodies most basic nutritional needs, it's no wonder why modern medicine falls way short of curing or preventing disease and illness.
A free-range organic egg has more heart healthy benefits than any whole grain meal, let alone whatever egg substitute means... seriously, what is an egg substitute? The truth is a healthy egg (not factory farmed) is rich in Omega-3 (anti-inflammatory), Vitamin D, protein, and healthy cholesterol; and no I did not mistakenly put the word healthy before the word cholesterol. Despite popular belief there is no link between the consumption of cholesterol and or saturated fat and an increased risk in heart disease, and until the medical community connects the dots between the true inflammation causing foods (like grains) and any and all resulting diseases, we as a society will continue to suffer. All of the supporting research has been done and is there for the viewing, but each of us has to be willing (especially those in the "health care" field) to forget what we've been brainwashed to believe and search for the truth.
Now don't get me wrong, I believe that this country has some of the best, if not the best, emergency care you can get. We have access to some of the most talented surgeons and ER techs that anyone could hope for, but once the medical urgency of the patient has been lowered from critical to recovery it's 'proceed at your own risk'.
So we can chose to eat local healthy organic sustainably farmed foods (vegetables, grass fed meats, eggs, and dairy) and get on the road to true recovery; a disease free life!
Or we can continue to blindly support this cancer in our food, medical, and health industries known as factory farming, and continue to suffer all of the unhealthy, unnatural, and destructive consequences that follow in its wake...
With such a disconnect between the medical field and the bodies most basic nutritional needs, it's no wonder why modern medicine falls way short of curing or preventing disease and illness.
A free-range organic egg has more heart healthy benefits than any whole grain meal, let alone whatever egg substitute means... seriously, what is an egg substitute? The truth is a healthy egg (not factory farmed) is rich in Omega-3 (anti-inflammatory), Vitamin D, protein, and healthy cholesterol; and no I did not mistakenly put the word healthy before the word cholesterol. Despite popular belief there is no link between the consumption of cholesterol and or saturated fat and an increased risk in heart disease, and until the medical community connects the dots between the true inflammation causing foods (like grains) and any and all resulting diseases, we as a society will continue to suffer. All of the supporting research has been done and is there for the viewing, but each of us has to be willing (especially those in the "health care" field) to forget what we've been brainwashed to believe and search for the truth.
Now don't get me wrong, I believe that this country has some of the best, if not the best, emergency care you can get. We have access to some of the most talented surgeons and ER techs that anyone could hope for, but once the medical urgency of the patient has been lowered from critical to recovery it's 'proceed at your own risk'.
So we can chose to eat local healthy organic sustainably farmed foods (vegetables, grass fed meats, eggs, and dairy) and get on the road to true recovery; a disease free life!
Or we can continue to blindly support this cancer in our food, medical, and health industries known as factory farming, and continue to suffer all of the unhealthy, unnatural, and destructive consequences that follow in its wake...
Friday, March 30, 2012
Go Green... Grass fed that is!
With everyone eager to hop on the "go green" bandwagon with the hybrid cars, solar panels, recycling, or whatever, I can't help but wonder why some of this collective energy isn't focused in the direction of one of the biggest global offenders of them all... the food industry!
Most people don't think of the food they eat as being one of the leading causes of... well not to sound overly dramatic but what the hell, global destruction. The truth is though Factory Farming causes more pollution (air, water, soil) and is a far bigger driver in the oil dependency market than our cars or trucks.
So why is it then when such topics of discussion come to the "save the planet" table, putting a stop to this destructive demon that rules our food industry isn't at the top of the list?
From a political standpoint the answer would be money, power, political influence... take your pick! From a social standpoint though, that is the average person, the answer is that most don't realize what it takes to get their grocery store shelves packed with all the prepackaged, pre-made, pre-prepared, ready-to-eat factory foods they demand. And factory farming (or industrial farming) is at the heart of it all. So what is factory farming? In a nutshell it can be summed up as corn, soy, wheat, or any other annual monocrop that against nature's will inhabits probably 90% or more of all farm land in this country. Why is it so bad you ask? It simply isn't natural, just look around at any plot of unmanicured land. When it comes to vegetation (plants, grasses, trees, shrubs...) perennial polyculture or verity rules the land. Nature runs a highly efficient waste free process of give and take, and it only works if verity exists (flourishes); if something takes from the soil (nitrogen for instance) than something must give it back.
Its only when humans and their chauvinistic sense of 'what should be' takes action, that this destructive monoculture becomes the norm. Whether it's the average homeowner trying to maintain his or her "perfect" lawn of only Kentucky blue grass, or the farmer who insists on planting only corn, soy, wheat, or canola for as far as the eye can see, the outcome remains the same and it's a losing battle for both the land and humans. The land needs three key nutrients to flourish and it obtains these naturally through it's give and take process; nitrogen obtained either from such plants as legumes (like clover) or from animal waste due to herbivore's grazing (like cows or sheep) and from birds naturally following behind (like chickens), phosphorus obtained from bone decay, and finally potassium from blood. Unfortunately when humans force this unnatural industrial or factory farming approach to an otherwise perfect system we take out of the equation any sort of polyculture and all grazing animals, leaving behind overly tilled (damaged) and infertile soil. The only answer then becomes routine (and ever increasing) use of pesticides and chemical fertilizer, and it takes an enormous amount of fossil fuel to obtain the billions of tons of fertilizer necessary in order to grow anything from this otherwise dead soil.
It's not just the soil being destroyed by this monoculture approach to farming however, with nearly 70% of the monocrops grown today being used as feed crops to feed all of natures grazers and foragers (cows, chickens, pigs, etc.) that we've forced off the land and into concentration camps or CAFO's, the resulting polluting effects are astonishing.
"Factory farming is responsible for most of the man-made methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere, which contribute to 13.5% of the total greenhouse gas emissions primary from animal waste mismanagement and the overuse of chemical fertilizer. And although livestock only contributes to roughly 9% of the total man-made carbon dioxide emissions, this sector is responsible for 37% of all methane and 65% of all nitrous oxide emissions." Food, Inc. a participant guide by Karl Weber
In natures there is no waste, everything goes back into the soil, but in factory farming all of this waste sits in "manure lagoons" where it pollutes the air (as mentioned above) as well as streams, rivers, and eventually the oceans with its toxic runoff.
So what's the answer? If we are going to take ownership of a piece of land no matter how big or small we must take on a steward's responsibility and do our best to mimic nature's no waste process of give and take. We must stop feeding nature's herbivores grain, and allow them to do the job they were put on this earth to do; graze, forage, and fertilize (naturally). We must stop poisoning the land with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and GM "Roundup Ready" seed and instead welcome a more natural polyculturalistic approach. We must make it our primary goal to build healthy fertile topsoil instead of raping the land of any last signs of life. We must choose to live sustainably! We must support our local organic sustainable farmers!
Most people don't think of the food they eat as being one of the leading causes of... well not to sound overly dramatic but what the hell, global destruction. The truth is though Factory Farming causes more pollution (air, water, soil) and is a far bigger driver in the oil dependency market than our cars or trucks.
So why is it then when such topics of discussion come to the "save the planet" table, putting a stop to this destructive demon that rules our food industry isn't at the top of the list?
From a political standpoint the answer would be money, power, political influence... take your pick! From a social standpoint though, that is the average person, the answer is that most don't realize what it takes to get their grocery store shelves packed with all the prepackaged, pre-made, pre-prepared, ready-to-eat factory foods they demand. And factory farming (or industrial farming) is at the heart of it all. So what is factory farming? In a nutshell it can be summed up as corn, soy, wheat, or any other annual monocrop that against nature's will inhabits probably 90% or more of all farm land in this country. Why is it so bad you ask? It simply isn't natural, just look around at any plot of unmanicured land. When it comes to vegetation (plants, grasses, trees, shrubs...) perennial polyculture or verity rules the land. Nature runs a highly efficient waste free process of give and take, and it only works if verity exists (flourishes); if something takes from the soil (nitrogen for instance) than something must give it back.
Its only when humans and their chauvinistic sense of 'what should be' takes action, that this destructive monoculture becomes the norm. Whether it's the average homeowner trying to maintain his or her "perfect" lawn of only Kentucky blue grass, or the farmer who insists on planting only corn, soy, wheat, or canola for as far as the eye can see, the outcome remains the same and it's a losing battle for both the land and humans. The land needs three key nutrients to flourish and it obtains these naturally through it's give and take process; nitrogen obtained either from such plants as legumes (like clover) or from animal waste due to herbivore's grazing (like cows or sheep) and from birds naturally following behind (like chickens), phosphorus obtained from bone decay, and finally potassium from blood. Unfortunately when humans force this unnatural industrial or factory farming approach to an otherwise perfect system we take out of the equation any sort of polyculture and all grazing animals, leaving behind overly tilled (damaged) and infertile soil. The only answer then becomes routine (and ever increasing) use of pesticides and chemical fertilizer, and it takes an enormous amount of fossil fuel to obtain the billions of tons of fertilizer necessary in order to grow anything from this otherwise dead soil.
It's not just the soil being destroyed by this monoculture approach to farming however, with nearly 70% of the monocrops grown today being used as feed crops to feed all of natures grazers and foragers (cows, chickens, pigs, etc.) that we've forced off the land and into concentration camps or CAFO's, the resulting polluting effects are astonishing.
"Factory farming is responsible for most of the man-made methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere, which contribute to 13.5% of the total greenhouse gas emissions primary from animal waste mismanagement and the overuse of chemical fertilizer. And although livestock only contributes to roughly 9% of the total man-made carbon dioxide emissions, this sector is responsible for 37% of all methane and 65% of all nitrous oxide emissions." Food, Inc. a participant guide by Karl Weber
In natures there is no waste, everything goes back into the soil, but in factory farming all of this waste sits in "manure lagoons" where it pollutes the air (as mentioned above) as well as streams, rivers, and eventually the oceans with its toxic runoff.
So what's the answer? If we are going to take ownership of a piece of land no matter how big or small we must take on a steward's responsibility and do our best to mimic nature's no waste process of give and take. We must stop feeding nature's herbivores grain, and allow them to do the job they were put on this earth to do; graze, forage, and fertilize (naturally). We must stop poisoning the land with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and GM "Roundup Ready" seed and instead welcome a more natural polyculturalistic approach. We must make it our primary goal to build healthy fertile topsoil instead of raping the land of any last signs of life. We must choose to live sustainably! We must support our local organic sustainable farmers!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
To eat or not to eat...
Michael Pollan really hit the nail on the head with this one in his 2006 best seller the Omnivore's Dilemma when he asked the big question "what should we eat?" Eating at its most basic and primal level, that is for survival purposes, should be as instinctual and require as much thought as say, should I breath in on the next breath, or breath out... so why then are we a nation of unhealthy malnourished pharma-dependent ticking time bombs?
The truth is our healthy relatively disease free hunter gatherer ancestors did not spend time quandering over this very basic question while lost somewhere between the aisle of frozen packaged science projects and that of prepackaged artificial everything at their local grocery store. No, instead they walked twenty-thirty miles a day in search of something to hunt while possibly gathering along the way. The concept, not necessarily the act itself, was as easy as they come... We see something moving up ahead, so we kill it in order to feed ourselves (our bodies) the protein, saturated fat, and fat soluble vitamins we desperately need to survive... end of story!
Yet modern industrialized civilizations have made satisfying this most basic of urges as difficult as deciding which crook to vote into office.
So back to the question at hand, how do we decide whether something should be part of our healthy diet or not?
Unfortunately the healthy more "perfect world" of hunting and gathering does not exist in our modern society. Sure people hunt; deer season, pheasant season, duck season, Wabbit season... ok that last one might be lost on anyone whose cartoon watching years was post 1980s but I digress... very few hunt as their sole source of protein/fat intake, and the only gathering being done is in the grocery store aisles I mentioned above, and we all know where this kind of diet gets us... copay after copay, doctor visit after doctor visit, prescription after prescription with an inevitable disease ending.
So what to eat?
I think we can come to an easy answer by asking these two simple questions before putting whatever it is in our mouths.
The truth is our healthy relatively disease free hunter gatherer ancestors did not spend time quandering over this very basic question while lost somewhere between the aisle of frozen packaged science projects and that of prepackaged artificial everything at their local grocery store. No, instead they walked twenty-thirty miles a day in search of something to hunt while possibly gathering along the way. The concept, not necessarily the act itself, was as easy as they come... We see something moving up ahead, so we kill it in order to feed ourselves (our bodies) the protein, saturated fat, and fat soluble vitamins we desperately need to survive... end of story!
Yet modern industrialized civilizations have made satisfying this most basic of urges as difficult as deciding which crook to vote into office.
So back to the question at hand, how do we decide whether something should be part of our healthy diet or not?
Unfortunately the healthy more "perfect world" of hunting and gathering does not exist in our modern society. Sure people hunt; deer season, pheasant season, duck season, Wabbit season... ok that last one might be lost on anyone whose cartoon watching years was post 1980s but I digress... very few hunt as their sole source of protein/fat intake, and the only gathering being done is in the grocery store aisles I mentioned above, and we all know where this kind of diet gets us... copay after copay, doctor visit after doctor visit, prescription after prescription with an inevitable disease ending.
So what to eat?
I think we can come to an easy answer by asking these two simple questions before putting whatever it is in our mouths.
- Does the food promote or inhibit inflammation? As we should have learned by now, the root cause of EVERY disease is inflammation of some kind. This goes for the obvious ones like crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other chronic inflammatory disease, all the way to the less obvious ones like autoimmune diseases, heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. So job one in maintaining a healthy diet has to be making sure our bodies are not a fertile breeding ground for inflammation. This means drastically limiting or eliminating anything that promotes inflammation. Easier said than done possibly... our industrialized factory farmed food system promotes an unhealthy lethal ratio of Omega-6:3 of nearly 20:1, where a healthy ratio of Omega-6:3 should be 2:1, 1:1, or anything where we have more Omega-3 in our bodies than 6. So why is this so hard? We live in a world where 90% of the meat available to us is of the grain (corn) and legume (soy) fed verity, and these foods are high in Omega-6 (inflammation). Oh but the "experts" will tell you to eat more fish, but much of the store bought fish is either farmed (fed corn) or depending on the type of fish and the waters it was caught in is so full of mercury and PCB's that they should be avoided on that basis alone. So the question is asked again, what to eat? Simply put, all locally raised organic grass fed and free range meets, eggs, and dairy products have healthy 'inflammation inhibiting' ratios of Omega-6:3, and therefore our diets should consist of only these types of purchased animal food sources. This means avoid all factory farmed animal products. Oh but the "experts" will tell you a healthy diet should consist of plenty whole grains. This would be true if by healthy we meant 'promotes inflammation', but since we know this is not true we should drastically limit or avoid these types of foods (grains and legumes) for the very same reasons the animals we consume should avoid them.
- Does the food promote a healthy gut? The 'gut' or digestive tract is the gateway to our immune system; as a matter of fact just as we can substitute inflammation and disease, I think we can safely substitute and healthy gut and a healthy immune system. In order to maintain a healthy gut (immune system) we need to make sure our diet provides and promotes healthy flora and a balanced ph for the environment for which they thrive. This means our diet should consist of foods high in digestive enzymes, healthy bacteria, and a healthy neutral ph. Avoiding foods that are difficult and in some cases impossible to completely digest (such as grains) will go a long way in promoting a healthy gut. I also believe that we should incorporate more fermented foods in our diets; my wife and I do this by making our own sauerkraut. Fermenting foods eliminates anti-nutrients, increases the levels of nutrients in the food, and adds a healthy dose of healthy bacteria. I'm itching to try fermenting milk but I will hold off until I can find a readily available source of raw grass fed milk; not yet legal in my home state.
So the next time you are deciding what to eat, ask yourself the two questions above.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Fresh Organic Free-Range Eggs (part 3)
With my first winter with chickens more than half over and end in sight I have surely learned a lot from both my mistakes and successes alike, for future winters springs and summers ahead.
Composting- After doing some research online in the pre-winter months, I came up with the idea of using the base of the chicken coop as my winter compost pile. Knowing I wasn't going to be moving the coop over the winter, using it as my compost had many benefits. By keeping a good 8+ inches of straw and compost (leaves, last year's grass clippings, and daily food scraps) at the bottom of the coop it has given the chickens a warm footing as well as a source of bugs during the harsher of the winter days. Also since they perch above every night, there is a layer of fresh chicken poop (fertilizer) added daily. All it requires of me is the occasional turning over on the days they choose to find their protein elsewhere, and in return I should have a good 8' x 4' x 8-10" of fresh soil for the spring!
Mobile Coop- Although my first attempt at building a mobile coop was hampered by the early October snow that took down many trees and limbs and (not) so gently placed them on the coop, with a little unbending, straightening, and rigging I have been able salvage it enough to put it to use over the winter. Probably my biggest learning experience yet, I have gained a lot of valuable knowledge from my mobile coop mistakes... The first thing I found was that the 4'x12' of ground space within the coop just wasn't enough for my 9 birds unless of course I moved it every hour to a fresh piece of grass... just not practical. Even my original thoughts of increasing the footprint to 8'x12' would still not be enough ground space for the birds to occupy for 8hrs while my wife and I are at work. The coop has however come in handy on the weekends when I'm available to push it around every so often throughout the day, as well as using it for 'chicken transport' moving them from one fenced in area to another. With the mobile coop not living up to my original expectations, I have fallen back on mobile electric fencing as the best although costly solution. Thankfully with the 200ft of electric poultry fence that I already owned along with another ~150ft that I was able to borrow from a local farmer who wasn't using it, I have been able to use fence rotation to supply them with plenty of fresh open space to roam. I think for the upcoming Spring I will focus on how to make their permanent coop mobile to eliminate the 'common space' (where the coop sits) that I'm left with despite pasture rotation.
Feed- As I posted about in an earlier post, finding local organic whole grains to supplement the chicken's diet with had proved more difficult than originally expected. Thankfully though, through my local organic farming connections I was able to locate a farmer 15min from my house who could supply me with local organic whole corn and wheat berries. A local source of organic feed and a new connection... it's a win win!
So unless the next month or so brings some substantial snow to the north east this year, I think I can say I have fared pretty well for my first winter with chickens. Bring on the Spring!
Composting- After doing some research online in the pre-winter months, I came up with the idea of using the base of the chicken coop as my winter compost pile. Knowing I wasn't going to be moving the coop over the winter, using it as my compost had many benefits. By keeping a good 8+ inches of straw and compost (leaves, last year's grass clippings, and daily food scraps) at the bottom of the coop it has given the chickens a warm footing as well as a source of bugs during the harsher of the winter days. Also since they perch above every night, there is a layer of fresh chicken poop (fertilizer) added daily. All it requires of me is the occasional turning over on the days they choose to find their protein elsewhere, and in return I should have a good 8' x 4' x 8-10" of fresh soil for the spring!
Mobile Coop- Although my first attempt at building a mobile coop was hampered by the early October snow that took down many trees and limbs and (not) so gently placed them on the coop, with a little unbending, straightening, and rigging I have been able salvage it enough to put it to use over the winter. Probably my biggest learning experience yet, I have gained a lot of valuable knowledge from my mobile coop mistakes... The first thing I found was that the 4'x12' of ground space within the coop just wasn't enough for my 9 birds unless of course I moved it every hour to a fresh piece of grass... just not practical. Even my original thoughts of increasing the footprint to 8'x12' would still not be enough ground space for the birds to occupy for 8hrs while my wife and I are at work. The coop has however come in handy on the weekends when I'm available to push it around every so often throughout the day, as well as using it for 'chicken transport' moving them from one fenced in area to another. With the mobile coop not living up to my original expectations, I have fallen back on mobile electric fencing as the best although costly solution. Thankfully with the 200ft of electric poultry fence that I already owned along with another ~150ft that I was able to borrow from a local farmer who wasn't using it, I have been able to use fence rotation to supply them with plenty of fresh open space to roam. I think for the upcoming Spring I will focus on how to make their permanent coop mobile to eliminate the 'common space' (where the coop sits) that I'm left with despite pasture rotation.
Feed- As I posted about in an earlier post, finding local organic whole grains to supplement the chicken's diet with had proved more difficult than originally expected. Thankfully though, through my local organic farming connections I was able to locate a farmer 15min from my house who could supply me with local organic whole corn and wheat berries. A local source of organic feed and a new connection... it's a win win!
So unless the next month or so brings some substantial snow to the north east this year, I think I can say I have fared pretty well for my first winter with chickens. Bring on the Spring!
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Grain Consumption within the Human Diet
Based on what I have recently learned (over the past 6mo or so) regarding grain consumption within modern day factory or industrial farming societies, and its adverse effects on human health ultimately leading to many of the illnesses and diseases affecting Americans in epic proportions, I have changed my stance on the importance of such monocrops (grains and legumes) within a healthy human diet.
The human digestive system was not designed nor has it evolved to a point to effectively digest such foods like grains and legumes without the body suffering from its harmful side effects; inflammation and damage to the gut. Since evidence shows inefficient digestion and inflammation are the root cause for nearly all human diseases be it heart disease, diabetes, cancer, crohn's disease, autoimmune diseases, and chronic inflammatory disorders in all its forms, a healthy diet should promote a healthy gut (fermented foods) and be anti-inflammatory based (grass-fed meats and eggs, wild caught fish, fresh organic fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds) instead of high in foods promoting inflammation such as grains, legumes, and factory farmed meats, poultry, fish, and eggs.
I believe that if consumed, grains and legumes should be eaten in minimal quantities and preferably in fermented form. (this is my opinion)
The human digestive system was not designed nor has it evolved to a point to effectively digest such foods like grains and legumes without the body suffering from its harmful side effects; inflammation and damage to the gut. Since evidence shows inefficient digestion and inflammation are the root cause for nearly all human diseases be it heart disease, diabetes, cancer, crohn's disease, autoimmune diseases, and chronic inflammatory disorders in all its forms, a healthy diet should promote a healthy gut (fermented foods) and be anti-inflammatory based (grass-fed meats and eggs, wild caught fish, fresh organic fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds) instead of high in foods promoting inflammation such as grains, legumes, and factory farmed meats, poultry, fish, and eggs.
I believe that if consumed, grains and legumes should be eaten in minimal quantities and preferably in fermented form. (this is my opinion)
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
McDonald's Mistery Meat
So if you were ever wondering what's in that burger you have been getting from your favorite fast-food chain all those years, mystery solved!
According to today's headline "pink slime" seems to be one of the technical terms... McDonald's drops use of gooey ammonia-based pink slime in hamburger meat. Yummy!
What is it doing in ground beef you ask?
Deemed "safe" by the USDA it's widely used to "sanitize" otherwise bacteria ridden meat. As I've posted about in the past, unhealthy and unsanitary living conditions for nearly all commercial livestock in this country results in animals (your future dinner or lunch) to stand, eat, and sleep in piles of their own... well you get the picture. And since ground meat typically comes from the lesser desired parts of the animal, plus some better left unmentioned extras, there's a high probability that this unhealthy and potentially deadly bacteria will find its way into your burger.
This is where our wonderful government has stepped up and said, instead of solving the problem at the source (eliminating factory farming) they have decided to "treat" the end product before it ever gets to the consumer in hopes that they (the consumer) will never find out... But to ensure the consumer doesn't become suspicious and or concerned, they (USDA) deems this treatment of the meat as a 'processing procedure' and not an ingredient and therefor the consumer never knows that their burger contains ammonium hydroxide; also found in chemical fertilizer, household cleaners to name a few.
So is this a win for the consumer now that McDonald's is eliminating this toxic ingredient?
Since the are still using the same potentially bacteria laden beef, your trading off one toxin (ammonium) for another (bacteria, e coli...), and they haven't mentioned anything about stopping the use of it in their chicken products.
I think there is only one real solution, eat locally raised organic grass-fed meets!
Support your local sustainable farmer!
According to today's headline "pink slime" seems to be one of the technical terms... McDonald's drops use of gooey ammonia-based pink slime in hamburger meat. Yummy!
What is it doing in ground beef you ask?
Deemed "safe" by the USDA it's widely used to "sanitize" otherwise bacteria ridden meat. As I've posted about in the past, unhealthy and unsanitary living conditions for nearly all commercial livestock in this country results in animals (your future dinner or lunch) to stand, eat, and sleep in piles of their own... well you get the picture. And since ground meat typically comes from the lesser desired parts of the animal, plus some better left unmentioned extras, there's a high probability that this unhealthy and potentially deadly bacteria will find its way into your burger.
This is where our wonderful government has stepped up and said, instead of solving the problem at the source (eliminating factory farming) they have decided to "treat" the end product before it ever gets to the consumer in hopes that they (the consumer) will never find out... But to ensure the consumer doesn't become suspicious and or concerned, they (USDA) deems this treatment of the meat as a 'processing procedure' and not an ingredient and therefor the consumer never knows that their burger contains ammonium hydroxide; also found in chemical fertilizer, household cleaners to name a few.
So is this a win for the consumer now that McDonald's is eliminating this toxic ingredient?
Since the are still using the same potentially bacteria laden beef, your trading off one toxin (ammonium) for another (bacteria, e coli...), and they haven't mentioned anything about stopping the use of it in their chicken products.
I think there is only one real solution, eat locally raised organic grass-fed meets!
Support your local sustainable farmer!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Why Put Drugs in Animal Feed?
With todays headline news reading "Dispute over drug in feed limiting US meat exports", you might ask then why put drugs in animal feed at all?
The correct answer is you should never have to, that is if you free graze your livestock allowing them to do as they would in nature. Unfortunately that is not the case for nearly all of the meat raised and sold in and by this country (pork, chicken, turkey, beef). Instead these animals, once brought to feedlots, live out the remainder of their short inhuman existence standing in piles of their own excrement as well as the mangled bodies of their short lived brethren, where they receive their daily unhealthy and most unnatural rations of grains and ground up animal parts.
So when you look the amount of money and time that is being carelessly and corruptly vested (wasted) in incorrectly running our countries food industry (factory farming), you can then see that the answer to why drugs are put into animal feed clearly becomes 'out of necessity!' If you are going to poison an animal with an unnatural and unhealthy diet as well as an unhealthy and unsanitary living environment, then you have no choice but to load them up with countless different pharmaceuticals just to keep them alive long enough to slaughter...
Support local Farming NOT Pharming!
Choose locally raised grass-fed meats!
Live Happy and Healthy!
The correct answer is you should never have to, that is if you free graze your livestock allowing them to do as they would in nature. Unfortunately that is not the case for nearly all of the meat raised and sold in and by this country (pork, chicken, turkey, beef). Instead these animals, once brought to feedlots, live out the remainder of their short inhuman existence standing in piles of their own excrement as well as the mangled bodies of their short lived brethren, where they receive their daily unhealthy and most unnatural rations of grains and ground up animal parts.
So when you look the amount of money and time that is being carelessly and corruptly vested (wasted) in incorrectly running our countries food industry (factory farming), you can then see that the answer to why drugs are put into animal feed clearly becomes 'out of necessity!' If you are going to poison an animal with an unnatural and unhealthy diet as well as an unhealthy and unsanitary living environment, then you have no choice but to load them up with countless different pharmaceuticals just to keep them alive long enough to slaughter...
Support local Farming NOT Pharming!
Choose locally raised grass-fed meats!
Live Happy and Healthy!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
A Gut Check
If inflammation is the root of all evil (disease in all its forms) then the gut is the body's first, last, and only line of defense.
The term "gut" typically refers to the digestive track; stomach, intestines, etc. But the gut is far more than a group of organs working together, in fact the gut is a hotbed teaming with life. Home to hundreds of trillions of microorganisms (healthy bacteria), it's symbiosis at its best. But like any symbiotic relationship both sides have to be in perfect harmony with each other at all times. With each side totally dependent on each other, it is a powerful yet delicate balance that must be maintained. The beauty of this sort of relationship though is that each side benefits from the others existence. We provide a home (the gut) for the bacteria to flourish and in return they make digestion (life) possible, and without proper digestion we cannot survive. If we cannot breakdown our food properly we not only deprive our bodies of the key nutrients required for life, we damage our intestines compromising our immune systems. And a compromised immune system (gut) is a perfect environment for inflammation (disease) to thrive.
Back before agriculture reared its ugly head we were healthy hunter gatherers. Our diets were pure, free of all disease causing foods; refined sugars, refined flowers, processed foods, and grains in all their forms. Our digestive tract maintained that perfect pH balance that makes for a hospitable environment for our symbiont (intestinal flora). This of course all changed about 10 thousand years ago with the advent of agriculture, and from then on our loyal symbiont has been getting the short end of the stick. We poison ourselves daily with diets high in processed foods, refined sugars and flowers, and so many grains (whole grains, breads, pastas, cereals, cookies, cakes...) that our guts normal bacteria friendly environment becomes an unbalanced inflamed mess.
But the rise of agriculture and decline of our health wasn't an instantaneous event. In its infancy we still had no processed foods, no refined (white) sugars, no refined (white) flowers, and no high fructose corn syrup. And just as significant, we had no means of preserving foods beyond the most natural and basic of methods... fermentation! This meant that all of these new foods, primarily grains and dairy, were often fermented in order to consume, in the case of grains and legumes, and or to preserve, in the case of dairy. And the amazing thing about this natural method of food preserving and preparation, is that fermentation like digestion requires help from these same microorganisms (bacteria). Without bacteria fermentation, or the breakdown of carbohydrates (sugar), would not be possible.
Fermented foods are not only easier to digest then their unfermented counterparts due to the elimination anti-nutrients, but they also become a healthier food containing increased levels of nutrients (vitamins, proteins, amino acids...) as well as an excellent source of healthy bacteria.
So this tells me that agriculture (grains and dairy) at its most primitive early state was not the cancer to our health that it has evolved into (factory farming). So what can we as people currently living in agriculture's most deadly years do to protect ourselves? We can eat primarily locally grown organic produce and grass fed meats. We can greatly reduce our intake of processed foods. We can significantly cut back on our grain consumption. And we can do our guts a favor and start living up to our end of the bargain... Eat more fermented foods!
The term "gut" typically refers to the digestive track; stomach, intestines, etc. But the gut is far more than a group of organs working together, in fact the gut is a hotbed teaming with life. Home to hundreds of trillions of microorganisms (healthy bacteria), it's symbiosis at its best. But like any symbiotic relationship both sides have to be in perfect harmony with each other at all times. With each side totally dependent on each other, it is a powerful yet delicate balance that must be maintained. The beauty of this sort of relationship though is that each side benefits from the others existence. We provide a home (the gut) for the bacteria to flourish and in return they make digestion (life) possible, and without proper digestion we cannot survive. If we cannot breakdown our food properly we not only deprive our bodies of the key nutrients required for life, we damage our intestines compromising our immune systems. And a compromised immune system (gut) is a perfect environment for inflammation (disease) to thrive.
Back before agriculture reared its ugly head we were healthy hunter gatherers. Our diets were pure, free of all disease causing foods; refined sugars, refined flowers, processed foods, and grains in all their forms. Our digestive tract maintained that perfect pH balance that makes for a hospitable environment for our symbiont (intestinal flora). This of course all changed about 10 thousand years ago with the advent of agriculture, and from then on our loyal symbiont has been getting the short end of the stick. We poison ourselves daily with diets high in processed foods, refined sugars and flowers, and so many grains (whole grains, breads, pastas, cereals, cookies, cakes...) that our guts normal bacteria friendly environment becomes an unbalanced inflamed mess.
But the rise of agriculture and decline of our health wasn't an instantaneous event. In its infancy we still had no processed foods, no refined (white) sugars, no refined (white) flowers, and no high fructose corn syrup. And just as significant, we had no means of preserving foods beyond the most natural and basic of methods... fermentation! This meant that all of these new foods, primarily grains and dairy, were often fermented in order to consume, in the case of grains and legumes, and or to preserve, in the case of dairy. And the amazing thing about this natural method of food preserving and preparation, is that fermentation like digestion requires help from these same microorganisms (bacteria). Without bacteria fermentation, or the breakdown of carbohydrates (sugar), would not be possible.
Fermented foods are not only easier to digest then their unfermented counterparts due to the elimination anti-nutrients, but they also become a healthier food containing increased levels of nutrients (vitamins, proteins, amino acids...) as well as an excellent source of healthy bacteria.
So this tells me that agriculture (grains and dairy) at its most primitive early state was not the cancer to our health that it has evolved into (factory farming). So what can we as people currently living in agriculture's most deadly years do to protect ourselves? We can eat primarily locally grown organic produce and grass fed meats. We can greatly reduce our intake of processed foods. We can significantly cut back on our grain consumption. And we can do our guts a favor and start living up to our end of the bargain... Eat more fermented foods!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Inflammation Will Kill You!
I spent nearly all of my twenty's into my early thirty's suffering from many inflammation problems. My demons were food allergies (soy and dairy) and tendonitis in nearly all of my joints. It was a horrible time in my life but now that I feel I have turned the corner to a tendonitis free life I believe I owe all that I've learned and what I continue to learn to the very inflammation that haunted me; my food allergies!
I can tell you from my own allergy experiences, as well as my own personal research that I've done, as a result of my allergies, in this personal quest to achieve optimal health, that food/seasonal allergies, migraines, arthritis, tendonitis, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and all of the many chronic inflammatory diseases have one major factor in common... Inflammation. In some form or another inflammation is at the root cause of nearly all the ailments that the western diet causes. I can also say that the more research I do the more the finger gets pointed at grains and legumes such as soy. They are very high in Omega-6 which by nature promotes inflammation, as apposed to Omega-3 which is a natural anti-inflammatory. The ratio in a humans diet, of Omega-6 to 3, should be any where from 2:1 to 1:1, but instead the average American diet promotes omega-6 to 3 ratios as high as 20:1 which is an inflammatory disaster! Americans get it from the meats eggs and dairy they consume because of factory farming, animals fed a diet consisting solely of grain instead of free-ranging (i.e. grass), as well as all from grains consumed either directly (whole grains, breads, pastas, and crackers) or indirectly in the form of vegetable oils, high fructose corn syrup and whatever else science can manipulate the corn or soy molecule into... Sad but true. We are by nature not designed to eat this way (diets so high in grains).
We are Omnivorous with the emphasis on Carnivorous not herbivorous.
I believe that those that suffer from food allergies are blessed with a warning that others never get until it's too late. So I urge you to do the research and let it take you beyond your soy or gluten or dairy allergies. Find out for yourself why eating locally raised grass fed meats eggs and dairy are so important. Find out why locally grown organic everything is so important. Find out why diets based so heavily around annual monocrops such as soy (legumes) and corn (grains) are so unhealthy. Find out why perennial polyculture is so important not only to our health but to sustainability. And most of all Live happy and healthy!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
GMO vs Nature... Everyone Loses!
So when I saw this headline in today's news: Bugs may be resistant to GMO corn, I had to at the very least make mention of it.
When will people stop and realize that GMO's (genetically modified organisms) are BAD news. Despite what Monsanto, the leading most powerful player in the biogenetics field, and our government who is greatly influenced politically, bureaucratically, and monetarily by this bio-agri mega conglomerate would like us to believe, that GMO's will save the worlds starving nations, such meddling in natures work can only lead to one thing... death and destruction!
The simple fact of the matter is why should the maker of Round-up, a toxic pesticide that's sole purpose is to kill living things, have so much influence in shaping (controlling) the current and future paths of agricultural and medical fields?
Putting aside for a moment the factory farming notion that the industrial and manufacturing approach to agriculture, where the animal (pig, cow, chicken) is the widget, CAFO's (concentrated animal feeding operations) are the assembly lines, and government subsidized GMO monocrops (corn and soybeans) are the cheap labor (in this case food)... putting aside, just for a moment, that any of this is a good idea benefiting anyone other than the few greedy mega-corporations sitting at the top of this manure pile of a mess. Ask yourself this, who stands to gain from all of this? It's surely not you or me...
The truth is giving grains to animals as their primary (and only) food source is not only deadly to the animal, in the case of ruminant, and not only to humans, in the form of chronic inflammatory diseases, but also to the planet! The annual monocrop approach to agriculture, especially on such a global scale, promotes destruction. It drains the soil of any and all nutrients rendering the land infertile. It requires the use of chemical fertilizers in order for crops to grow in these man-made deserts we call the "fruited plains". It requires pesticides to ward off insects that thrive on such nutrient lacking immune deficient plants that would otherwise have a thriving chance in a more natural perennial polyculture approach.
And all of this leads to our current state of agriculture. One where life be it human or grain is manipulated at its very core (DNA) and patented. One where these GMO seeds produce their own chemical pesticide and or seeds that won't grow without being sprayed (with pesticides), pesticide produced by the very company that patented the seed of course (Monsanto). And this greed and power driven nightmare has even led to suicide seeds that won't germinate and therefore cannot reproduce. One where genes that would otherwise cause a tortured animal (say a chicken or pig) to become distressed and aggressive in nature, to instead be indifferent to its immediate environment.
If all of this sounds as appalling to you as it does to me, then do something about it! Buy all your meets, eggs, and dairy products from local organic sustainable grass fed farms! Befriend your local farmers! Know where your food comes from! Demand change!
When will people stop and realize that GMO's (genetically modified organisms) are BAD news. Despite what Monsanto, the leading most powerful player in the biogenetics field, and our government who is greatly influenced politically, bureaucratically, and monetarily by this bio-agri mega conglomerate would like us to believe, that GMO's will save the worlds starving nations, such meddling in natures work can only lead to one thing... death and destruction!
The simple fact of the matter is why should the maker of Round-up, a toxic pesticide that's sole purpose is to kill living things, have so much influence in shaping (controlling) the current and future paths of agricultural and medical fields?
Putting aside for a moment the factory farming notion that the industrial and manufacturing approach to agriculture, where the animal (pig, cow, chicken) is the widget, CAFO's (concentrated animal feeding operations) are the assembly lines, and government subsidized GMO monocrops (corn and soybeans) are the cheap labor (in this case food)... putting aside, just for a moment, that any of this is a good idea benefiting anyone other than the few greedy mega-corporations sitting at the top of this manure pile of a mess. Ask yourself this, who stands to gain from all of this? It's surely not you or me...
The truth is giving grains to animals as their primary (and only) food source is not only deadly to the animal, in the case of ruminant, and not only to humans, in the form of chronic inflammatory diseases, but also to the planet! The annual monocrop approach to agriculture, especially on such a global scale, promotes destruction. It drains the soil of any and all nutrients rendering the land infertile. It requires the use of chemical fertilizers in order for crops to grow in these man-made deserts we call the "fruited plains". It requires pesticides to ward off insects that thrive on such nutrient lacking immune deficient plants that would otherwise have a thriving chance in a more natural perennial polyculture approach.
And all of this leads to our current state of agriculture. One where life be it human or grain is manipulated at its very core (DNA) and patented. One where these GMO seeds produce their own chemical pesticide and or seeds that won't grow without being sprayed (with pesticides), pesticide produced by the very company that patented the seed of course (Monsanto). And this greed and power driven nightmare has even led to suicide seeds that won't germinate and therefore cannot reproduce. One where genes that would otherwise cause a tortured animal (say a chicken or pig) to become distressed and aggressive in nature, to instead be indifferent to its immediate environment.
If all of this sounds as appalling to you as it does to me, then do something about it! Buy all your meets, eggs, and dairy products from local organic sustainable grass fed farms! Befriend your local farmers! Know where your food comes from! Demand change!
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