Stanley Fishman of Tender Grassfed Meat blog wrote me this morning and shared his post about the founder of US Wellness Meats, John Wood. John is a sponsor of Realfoodmedia.com and exhibits at the Wise Traditions annual conference each year. Stan is nominating John today for the HartkeisOnline.com Hero of Sustainable Agriculture Award. I think this is a great idea, and I would like the readers to check out Stan’s blog and then second his nomination in the comments here on my blog, below.
Here is Stan’s post:
Grassfed Farmer Renews the Land
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat
Life begins with the land. The plants we eat cannot provide us with vitamins and minerals unless the soil is rich enough. An animal that has eaten plants grown on depleted soil cannot provide us with the nutrients we need. Modern farming methods can deplete the soil of nutrients. Even traditional methods can deplete the soil unless good crop rotation practices are followed. But one grassfed farmer has reversed this frightening trend. John Wood of US Wellness Meats is renewing the soil on his farm. He has doubled the yield of grass and improved the quality of his forage. This has improved the already excellent quality of the meat he raises. And he has accomplished this with substances derived from long dead plants.
See the rest of his article, Grassfed Farmer Renews the Land, here. After you read his article, please return to this blog and second his nomination!
See also, our Weston A. Price Foundation local chapters for a farm fresh foods source list in your area.
Kimberly Hartke is the publicist for Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition education non-profit.
To find grassfed meat, see the Hartke is Online.com Resources page.
Paid Endorsement Disclosure: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of renumeration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.
Love your blog, by the way. What a great, centralized resource for all real food and local farm info.
This is exciting news, and good for John Woods. But…the carbon footprint of raising livestock for food consumption, we know, is not sustainable when we consider the national/global food shed implications.
.-= Anaiis Salles´s last blog ..Green Revolution: Food Insecurity 101 =-.
Ahh, we recieved an email about this from our food suppliers, apparently they now get their meat from here. Nice to know where our food comes from!
.-= Paper Cup Lids´s last blog ..Caffè Culture 23rd-25th June 2010 =-.
@Anaiis: Raising livestock for food would be much more sustainable if people ate reasonable amounts of conscientiously-raised meats, instead of the vast quantities of factory-farmed meat currently available in American supermarkets everywhere. If animal-protein-consuming humans cut back their consumption they could still have more than enough meat for good health, the by-products of animal farming could be used more safely as fertilizer to the benefits of the soil and the plants, and the plants would be more nutritious. It doesn’t have to be either-or.
The current American diet is far too meat-heavy for optimal human health, and the demand for it is fueling CAFO’s and corn-feeding of cattle and huge poultry houses for chickens which are certainly not optimal for the animals’ health either.
Actually, raising true grassfed livestock generates far less heat and uses much less energy than the grain fed variety.
Grain feeding requires huge amounts of artificial fertilizer to raise huge amounts of cheap, GMO corn and GMO soy. The process requires large amounts of oil, the energy used to transport the oil, the heat and energy required to refine the oil, the heat generated by the manufacturing process of artificial fertilizer. Much fuel is needed to transfer vast amounts of artificial fertilizer to the farms. Once the corn and soy are grown, they are processed into feed at heat generating plants, then they must be transported to the farms and feedlots.
People often blame meat eating for the cutting down of the Amazon rainforest. Most of the former rainforest is used to grow GMO soy, which is then transported to China and other countries to be processed into feed for their growing grain fed cattle industry, again using much fuel and energy.
In contrast, true grassfed and grass finished meat requires very little energy to raise, especially on good soil. In fact, no feed or artificial fertilizer needs to be manufactured or transported. The only transport needed is when the cattle are ready to be processed. Grazing does not require the clear cutting of forests.
Properly managed grazing results in the animals enriching the soil with their manure, which nourishes plants that pull carbon from the atmosphere, which feeds the animals, who restore it to the soil. This is the cycle of nature. Plants grow much better and denser in good soil, pulling much more carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it into the ground through the roots, where it has no possible effect on climate.
I might add that there were huge numbers of grass eating animals on earth in the past, including perhaps more bison in the US then we now have cattle, during long time periods before the industrialization of the world. The natural cycle of the planet is set up to include huge herds of grass eating animals, particularly when the soil is good
Dr. Weston A. Price proved that humans do best when eating animal based foods. Personally, I find grassfed meat so much more satisfying that I eat half the meat I used to.
.-= Stanley Fishman´s last blog ..Frugal, Delicious Hungarian Hash =-.
I second Stan’s nomination. We’ve been buying wonderful meat from US Wellness. They have great products and great service.
@sheri
you`re right sheri
US have great quality of meat and they have product and great service too
.-= andre fridge´s last blog ..Pink Mini Fridge Buyers Guide =-.
I’d like to second Sheri aka Mom’s second for John Woods. I have been buying from US Wellness for a couple of years now and love it. I even have it shipped to friends and family for birthday presents, Mother’s Day, Christmas, etc.