Regenerative Agriculture: A Message of Hope
Health is on everyone’s mind right now. Metabolic disease and poor nutrient status, particularly vitamin D, are known added risk factors this winter. Many hospitals in North America spend billions of dollars trying to manage chronic illnesses that are preventable. Turning our attention towards prevention and regeneration offers a sense of hope and connection.
Regenerative agriculture can tackle problems like climate change, essential nutrient deficiencies and our disconnection from the food systems that sustain us. In an age of misinformation we need to look a generation or two back in order to look ahead.
Regenerative Agriculture
If you need a message of hope, then please check out Sacred Cow this weekend. This film is available to the public here. It offers a different look at our food systems than what the mainstream narrative promotes. The end of this film had me in tears. Several small scale farmers around the world speak about what it’s like to be part of a solution our planet and people long for.
One of the biggest challenges North America’s medical system is up against is diabetes and obesity. The corporate model of food has failed us by creating a hunger that never ends. Healthy, nutrient dense options have been replaced by an array of flavour options that are more intense but unfortunately have no real food value. In fact a lot of harm has been done. Metabolic illness and obesity are epidemic with many young people being affected. We know that highly processed foods are the real problem.
Undoing the Harm
Misinformation around food is rampant. Pro-vegan documentaries make it to blockbuster status despite that the ‘facts’ and claims made in these films have been debunked by scientists. It is hidden that these films are funded by people poised to make huge financial gains by selling pea protein. Vegan protein shakes often cause distress to the gastrointestinal tract of my patients because they are lectins. Films like Cowspiracy, What the Health, Forks Over Knives and Game Changers all promote the same idea that meat is bad morally, environmentally and health-wise while ignoring the science of nutrition.
Undoing the harm means tackling the nuances of this debate. Taking a more critical look at the assumptions and misinformation around meat consumption needs to happen. I see people in clinic every week with health issues that are easily remedied if there is flexibility in thought around what it means to eat healthy.
What is Sacred Cow?
Sacred Cow features a number of experts in the field in the field of medicine, nutrition and regenerative agriculture. It looks at how farmers have been forced to use chemicals in production but many are turning away from this. A vegan talks about how her lifestyle choices evolved over time.
Scientific evidence is presented on how including animals in agriculture is nourishing for health and for environment when done right. Small scale farmers are requiring that it be done humanely because of how connected they are. Vegan diets destroy more life if soil health, small animals and crops that require chemicals are included in the death toll. Let’s also listen to the cost of ‘meatless Monday’ on the bodies of children with less access to other types of healthy food due to poverty and global economics.
Sacred Cow proposes a new way to look at sustainable diets. The film dives into the nutritional claims against meat, and addresses the ethical questions around killing animals for food. Eliminating animals from our food system may not be the easy answer everyone has been wanting. This film is different because of how it came about. Please check out Diana Rogers work for more info and click here to watch it for free before November 30th, 2020. Enjoy with the whole family!
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