Doesn’t the planet need grain to endure? Presently there is not
sufficient Paleo food to go around, wont this drive the costs up?
And so on: This idea is a general idiom in the Paleosphere. It
happens in many shapes, from concern in relation to the future
of human beings; the idea that the whole world needs grains to
survive. Some Paleo eaters look at it from the individual degree
and look at the spread of Paleo Eating outside a small niche to
be devastating for their lives because it will press the selling
prices of real food through the roof. Appreciate, this specific
criticism, concern, question comes in quite a few forms, but
at the basic level it all comes down to two very simple
questions: 1.Can the world endure on a Paleo diet? 2.If so,
how do we change from mono-crop farming to sustainable,
Paleo agriculture?
The response to the first question is, frankly, something I do
not know. I may only hope. I believe the world can make it
through without intensive mono-crop farming because the
current way of farming is NOT sustainable. Modern grain
farming makes use of petroleum centered fertilizers to grow
intensive crops on earth that has lost its vitality over the years
thanks to over farming. We cannot continue to really rely on
grain farming. The issue is not whether the marketplace can
live with out grains, its a question of when. As the price of oil
increases exponentially and contest for this non renewable
resource becomes hard to find the price of fertilizers extracted
from oil will also increase. With them will go the cost of crops
grown with those fertilizers, along with all the choices created
from all those crops? Breads, pasta, processed food,
vegetable oils, grain fed cattle. Further, all the present-day
pillaging associated with our topsoil by mono-crop farming
sucks the nutrients coming from our most precious resource,
the dirt, and finds us with barren wastelands. Time is running
out. The more we grow grains the quicker we destroy our soil.
Thankfully, topsoil is renewable, but yet it all requires time.
Time we might not have as all of the world population expands
and grain production proceeds to halt. Pasteurization of
ruminants is the best way to repair our damaged topsoil,
but it is not quick. We have to start now if we are set to avert
disaster. For more on this I urge you to watch this
presentation on the Buckmininster Fuller Institute prize
winner of 2010: http://challenge.bfi.org/winner_2010
Renewal of the soil might be done. But we now have to take
action now. We have to let the world know that there is an
alternative to intensive agriculture, to a grain based diet, to
obesity in one country and starvation in the next. Our hope,
the worlds only real hope, is that enough non mono-crop
food, in different words, Paleo foods, can be produced to
feed the world. We know we can reverse the damage of
grain farming, but even so, can we produce enough food
without relying on grains and mono-crops?
Were betting which we can. Most grain production is
unnecessary, heavily subsidized, and grown due to the fact
of government encouragement, not demand. Cattle are
needlessly feedlot and forced to feed on grain, when that
very identical land can be used to raise pastured cattle.
Ethanol is grown; using oil derived fertilizer, and then
considered an substitute energy resource however its really
using up valuable agricultural land that could be harnessed
for food production. So, does ethanol genuinely help, or is
a different way for powerful lobby groups to use government
backing to fleece the taxpayer as well as the consumer
while ravaging the planet?. Consider that this great bulk of
farmed animals go to waste. Where one time we cooked
in tallow and lard we these days cook in hydrogenated
vegetable oils? Where once we ate organs, offal, fat we
now fill up on bread, pasta and empty carbohydrates. The
organs, the offal and the fat are now waste products.
Thrown carelessly away and therefore creating an false
demand for grain.
But bread is so cheap? Is it? What exactly is the real cost?
Do you know? Does anybody know? We understand That
the US government heavily subsidies mono-crop production.
While the taxpayer is funding your product then of course
you can undercut your opposition. Add in to this production
the environmental costs and the rate of mono-crops begin
to rise. Then people have to add in the phantom costs; the
cost you pay for oil being artificially inflated by growing a
crop the world doesn’t need. And what of the other phantom
costs? Grains cause obesity and ruin peoples well-being
and then the taxpayer, you, again are subsidizing the
healthcare of these individuals who have their wellness,
their lives, unwittingly ruined through grain consumption.
So, is wheat cheaper? Who knows? May possibly a Paleo
way of eating be cheaper? If we all take the measures
outlined above and stop subsidizing grain production,
stop using petroleum based fertilizers, stop hearing to
the govt (influenced by the grain lobby) who explains to
you to ruin your well-being and buy into the con.
The last point can be the actual initial cost of introducing
a lot more citizens to eating Paleo. Economically that
comes down to supply and demand. In the short term
prices will rise as additional people embrace a healthy
eating plan of meat and vegetables. In the long term, as
demand dictates more pastured cattle, more fresh new
vegetables the cost will come down as farms shift from
mono-crop to Paleo. Further, the enhanced demand will
encourage farmers to use underutilized land to grow more
grass fed cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry and so on.
Further, it will not take long for thinkers ahead of the curve
to get started reinvigorating desolate, grain destroyed land
with pasteurized beef, thus supplying consumer demand
and assisting this environment.
In order to gain a greater understanding of Paleo Diet or if you
are really excited The All Natural Diet and Lifestyle visit our
friends and get more involved in the community that is Paleo..
The Paleo Diet Cookbook: More than 150 recipes for Paleo
Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Beverages
