the latest development to galvanize my dream of a sustainable farm is the discovery of the Weston A. Price foundation website. Dr. Price was a dentist in the early 19th century that decided to study native/indigenous people groups to understand why their cranial and facial development was superior, resulting in stronger, healthier, straighter teeth, naturally. He discovered that ALL of these groups consumed large amounts of Saturated Fats, that is animal fats. They also understood the benefits of raw milk and the consumption of vitamins A and D in the form of liver oil. Of these groups, those that had recently started consuming "western" diets of processed foods, their facial and dental structures suffered along with their overall health within as little as one generation.
The website is filled with studies that are largely overlooked by modern medicine and dentistry, as well as commentaries on the relationship between farming, health, the econcomy, big business, and how we got to where we are. The idea that our health is directly related to nutrition, not the "pyramid" of genetically engineered, extruded grains; hormone/antibiotic riddled meat; irradiated and "preserved" fruits and vegetables; and skim-milk (which used to be exclusively for the pigs) that has been ultrapasteurized and homogenized, has somehow been lost on the modern West. And that's just the food at the supermarket, to say nothing of the methods of growing and raising these foods, and the efforts of government agencies to support the degeneration of our food and land in the name of "health".
Needless to say, we've all added cod liver oil to our diets now and we're drinking non-homogenized milk, at least until we can find a raw milk provider, or get a jersey of our own. we are buying grass-fed, grass-finished beef, using lots of real butter, and thankfully going back to lard for cooking.
We are also spending a lot more money on food, which for me is a very difficult. But i've thought long and hard along these lines and if an ounce of prevention equals a pound of lard and a spoonful of cod liver oil, then i'm okay not spending all my money (in deductibles) on the "cures".
