Food and health

The Secret History of Milk - and an ACRES USA interview with Ron Schmidt - author of "the Untold Story of Milk"

The Truth about milk - US raw milk proponent and dairyman, Mark McAfee, sheds some light on pasteurization, the benefits of consuming unadulterated food and the war on bacteria. The first of a four part seminar series hosted by Rutgers University Agriculture Experiment Station.

Why you should eat offal  By Cherry Ripe

If rules change will Camembert stay the same? Traditional French raw milk cheeses under threat  from large manufacturers and retailers

Adventures in Diet By Vilhjalmur Stefansson  -  Natural fats and heart disease  - fact or fiction
Harper's Monthly Magazine, Nov and Dec 1935 and January 1936.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 

Eating Reindeer:  "Where Home Cooking Gets the Cold Shoulder"                      by Andreas Viestand

This article appeared in the Washington Post and is about traditional reindeer cuisine in the Tundra.

Medicine

How Effective are Modern Medicine's treatments? The British Medical Journal in its publication BMJ Clinical Evidence, found that of about 2,500 treatments offered in conventional medicine Of around 2500 treatments covered 13% are rated as beneficial, 23% likely to be beneficial, 8% as trade off between benefits and harms, 6% unlikely to be beneficial, 4% likely to be ineffective or harmful, and 46%, the largest proportion, as unknown effectiveness.

High Cholesterol may protect against infections and atherosclerosis -  by Dr Uffe Ravnskov

Seniors with high cholesterol healthy

 Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, 2010; 28: 121-127

In the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care a Finnish study has just reported that the general health status of seniors with high cholesterol far exceeds that of their counterparts having low cholesterol. In whatever marker of health and morbidity one wished to measure - mortality, strokes, myocardial infarction, infectious disease or dementia, the seniors with highest cholesterol fared far better. Particularly important is the observation that these >75-year old seniors were free-ranging, that is living on their own or with relatives. A random sample of all persons aged 75+ years, living in Kuopio, Finland was made.

After exclusion of participants living in institutional care and participants using lipid-modifying agents or missing data on blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the final study population consisted of 490 home-dwelling elderly persons. The conclusion of the doctors after the 6-year study period was that participants with a low serum total cholesterol had a lower survival rate than participants with an elevated cholesterol level, irrespective of concomitant diseases or general health status.

Farming

Acres USA articles - a wealth of wonderful articles here on ecological farming and more

Recognize, Relate Innovate   by Christine Jones. Growing soil with holistic grazing management.

This organic pig went to market       Article from SMH Good Living on organic free range pigs

Articles and papers by Dr John Ikerd  US Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics and author of "Small Farms Are Real Farms"

Joel Salatin: Tall Grass Mob Stocking - An aggressive approach to controlled grazing -  Joel is now calling what he does: "mob-stocking herbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization"! In other words he is mimicking the grazing patterns or herbivorous herds throughout the world as per the work of Holistic Management luminary Alan Savory.

Peasantry necessary for human survival

Peasants are detested by both communists and capitalists - but when it comes to
productivity a small farm is unbeatable. These objects of contempt are now our best chance of feeding the world

Why Britain needs "peasant farming" Peasant has long been a derogatory term in the UK, but the model of smaller-scale family farms is as relevant to food security here as for developing countries.

How Holistic Management can regenerate land, farms and farmers. An interview with Bruce Ward