In her latest column, Laura Marie Neubert tackles the divisive topic of eating meat
As someone deeply immersed in the cultivation and preparation of food for medicinal purposes, I have explored a vast range of opinions, both learned and unlearned, about eating meat, specifically beef. .
If conflicting diet and health advice confuses me, I can only imagine how confusing it must be for young people, busy people, and beginners.
Although the evidence against industrialized farming cannot be defended, and there is no doubt that mass deforestation to accommodate cheap beef for fast food would be devastating to the earth and everything on it. , there is a strong body of peer-reviewed evidence to suggest eating. 100% grass-fed “finished” beef and dairy are far less harmful to your health than eating beef and dairy from grain-fed feedlots.
There may actually be benefits.
In my opinion cows should not be demonized. Instead, they might question the system. You can also learn to trust your intuition. The first rule of permaculture is “observation and dialogue”, that is, to look and listen to nature, natural cycles and food webs, and adjust our thoughts and actions accordingly.
It took me a while to understand what this all meant, but as time goes on, I find myself putting the principles into practice more and more.
Shortly after making the decision to cut all types of meat from my diet, I started thinking more and more about the late Grandpa Jim.
He was a true grit cowboy. I spent countless hours of happy time with him on the ranch and in the barn, tending the grazing cattle, caring for the horses, and helping with the nets for country living.
Every morning Grandpa ate porridge with cream and maple syrup, eggs from free-range chickens and bacon.
His Stanley bento box contained a monster apple and meat sandwich on homemade bread smeared with sweet butter, all washed down with spoon-strong percolator coffee.
He ate range beef, fresh vegetables and potatoes for dinner most nights and smoked hand-rolled virgin cigarettes. He doesn’t use pesticides, glyphosate, high fructose corn syrup, or anything artificial. Grandpa was not much different from any other cowboy of his time who lived a very long and happy life without suffering from any chronic “disease”.
I don’t pretend to understand the health risks of virgin cigarettes, but they are significantly more harmful than those caused by the 69 known carcinogenic chemicals in modern cigarette smoke. is low and is believed to be far less harmful than most Frankenfoods.
Until regulators put people and the planet above profit, we can rely on our good sense — rely on intuition, be informed about everything that enters our bodies, Observe how we look and feel and adjust accordingly.
My overarching rules are easy to follow. If nature created the food I eat, I wouldn’t worry too much, but if humans altered the state of nature, I would pause or pass.
Cows evolved to eat grass, not grain, and do not eat medicines or antibiotics.
Industrialized cattle are fed grain for rapid fattening for the market. They are given antibiotics to combat the illness they suffered as a result of living too close to each other, living a very sad life while eating unnatural foods that they cannot metabolize because the antibiotics have killed their intestinal biome.
Therefore, it makes sense that the fat found in meat and dairy products from industrialized, grain-fed cattle would be significantly different from the fat found in 100% grass-fed and finished beef and dairy products. I’m here.
I put ethically raised, regeneratively grown, 100% grass-fed and finished beef and grass-fed poultry back into our diets.
We have learned to “eat what we eat,” teaching us to eat less and eat more quality animal protein. not. A cleaner diet can be costly up front and take longer to prepare, but intuition tells us that staying healthy longer will pay off over time.
Ironically, I hardly remember my conversations with Grandpa Jim. He was a man of few words. I learned everything I needed to know from him then and now through observation.
Laura Marie Neubert is an urban permaculture designer based in West Vancouver. Follow her on her Instagram @upfrontandbeautiful, visit her website on her Upfront & Beautiful to learn more about permaculture, or email her with your questions.
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