i produce raw milk and our trouble in marketing it was very clearly summed up in the thread about voting for hillary. -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Chip Mefford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Originally Posted to the list, on Monday, feb 11, 2008: > > - ------------------------------------------------------------- > > It's now been two days since the final keynote speech of the > Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture 2008 > conference ended. > > I've slept 2 nights, and still have not assimilated the information > I gathered -almost by osmosis- by attending. Was just about the best > money and time I ever spent. > > The final keynote was delivered by Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures > Dairy http://www.organicpastures.com/ in California. Mr McAfee's > dairy is one of the two licensed raw milk dairies in California, > and one of one certified organic raw milk dairy in that state. > > In his keynote, he made a lot of tall claims for his product > specifically and raw dairy in general. And I, being who I am > somewhat skeptical in nature, had a bit of a problem with it > all. However, taking anecdotes for what they are, was pretty > overwhelmed by some of the claims of his customers. Throughout > the whole presentation, the line from Frank Zappa's 'cosmic debris' > kept floating to the top of my consciousness, "And you may not > believe this little fella, but it'll cure your asthma too". > > Seems the LA region of California is suffering from a literal > epidemic of asthma. The stats he gave were 1 in 5, that's 20 > percent of children in that part of the state. Of his customer > base, many began using raw dairy with asthma, and have put their > pills and inhalers away, because the symptoms are all gone. All, > gone. > > Caveats apply of course, folks who are living with the western > modern 'heath' or rather, anti-heath of cancers, massive pharmaceutical > dependencies, esp hormones and antibiotics could quite literally be > killed by a switch to raw dairy. The baseline of general health must > be there. The probiotic nature of raw dairy is pretty strong stuff. > > The general thesis is, that we, esp in the west, but basically all over > the world, never really made it anywhere, without the cow. We have > co-evolved over the last few tens of thousands of years. We are > in point of fact, symbiotically co-dependent, we are our dairy, > we are our gardens and farms, and they are us. > > Now, for me, this rather flies in the face of what I have read and > studied, I was under the impression (and still somewhat still am) that > homo sapiens relation with 'cattle' is way too young for there to be a > symbiotic relationship, but apparently, there is a context. homo sapiens > the hunter/gatherer and homo sapiens the cultivator are very different > in lifestyle, diet and lifespan. Apparently, homo sapiens from the farm > like other homo sapiens, live between 70 and 100 years, keeping their > working strength for pretty much all that time, from adolescent onwards. > Homo sapiens post-farm, (homo novus if you will) also go 70-90+ years > but begin their decline almost as soon as they hit reproductive > maturity, and that curve starts turning downwards quickly after 45+ > years. Now, it's interesting to note that in our 'pharmaceutical > rich' biosphere that we have created over the last 50 years, that > 'People' in the west, due to presence of real and artificial growth > and reproductive hormones in the food chain, are starting to show > signs of early onset of puberty at insane ages, I overheard folks > talking about studies showing signs in 1 year old girls. > > The dairy, the meat, the vegetables, and by immediate one-jump > extension, Us, are totally tied to the soil, and the pasture. > Seems like, the funding for the ARS pasture research work has been > completely gutted by President Bush. As if, the pasture no longer > had any meaning in this day. Seems, this day of patented gmo grains, > antibiotics, and 'feed lot' type 'cattle' factory farming has precluded > the science of the pasture. As if the pasture no longer has any > significance. > > One could get the impression that here in the US, as well as the > rest of the developing world, large multinational organizations > are running a full court press to remove the farm aspect from > food production entirely. > > Seeing as -at least the anecdotal- evidence strongly implies, > if not outright insists, that factory food production leads to > long term dependence on pharmaceutical products, at a much reduced > quality of life, the only reason for this it seems, would be to increase > the wealth of a few, at the expense of the heath of the whole. > > Gee, do you think? > > - ---- > > On the other hand, PASA, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable > Agriculture's 2008 'Farming for the Future' Conference in State > College, Pa, US, was attended by over two thousand people, representing > 42 states in the US, and 8 countries world wide. A lot of people, > working hard, and some of them, working really hard, to make a > difference, to make a better life, in harmony, for all of us. > > There is a whole lot I have to say about impressions I took away from > this weekend, that I have not even begun to try to condense down into > coherent thoughts. > > Things are messed up. > Folks are working hard to make things better. > > there is hope. > > No Farms > No Food. > > I would take it a bit further; > > Know Farms > Know Food. > > - --chipper > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (GNU/Linux) > Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org > > iD8DBQFHtIa5lwL/NsEHg6sRAsMIAKDARq01RKpf9047KwYSJ6NDV1V/fwCfTee3 > 0BUOsymxJ8Y51ZXuV8Z4BN0= > =MZSt > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
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