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Are you missing out? The potential nutrient deficiencies in vegetarian diets.

Are you missing out? The potential nutrient deficiencies in vegetarian diets.

Uncategorized 0
30Nov

Through all the research on diet and lifestyle of our early ancestors and into healthy indigenous and traditional cultures, one thing is now crystal clear.

There’s no ONE natural human diet.

Different parts of the world have hugely varied landscapes that grow different native foods and humans have adapted rather nicely to utilising on these available foods.
However what’s also clear is that although traditional diets varied hugely, the inclusion of at least some animal foods was essential to maintaining robust health over the long term.
There are no essential foods, but there are essential nutrients only found in animals foods. Plant-based diets are virtually devoid of B12, calcium, iron, zinc, the long-chain fatty acids EPA & DHA, and fat-soluble vitamins like A & D.

Adequate B12 intake is thought by some to be possible from certain plant sources such as seaweed, brewer’s yeast, spirulina and fermented soy. As it turns out, plant sources of B12 are mostly B12 analogues or cobamides which in fact block the intake of, and increase the requirement for true B12.

Vegans are often found to be deficient in calcium. Not just because their diet doesn’t include calcium rich animal foods but the calcium-rich plant foods they’re eating contain oxalates and phytates which block absorption of some of the calcium contained within them. (1) (2) (3)

Vegans often have lower serum ferritin concentrations than omnivores even though their iron intake calculations are comparable. Once again this is due to the form in which the iron is eaten. Many plant foods are high in iron but the iron is in the (non-heme) form that’s poorly absorbed. Many of these plant foods are high in iron absorption inhibitors, such as phytates, polyphenols and oxalates. The result of this combination is that 90% or more of the iron in those foods isn’t absorbed. Luckily the absorption inhibitors in only seem to apply to the non-heme sources of Iron, so If you’re eating plenty of veggies with your meat then you’re good to go. (4) (5) (6)

Zinc’s the same story, although there’s not too much concern about the intake levels of zinc in a vegan diet, the high levels of phytate in the plant foods being consumed increase the volume of those foods required to absorb sufficient zinc. (7) (8)

EPA and DHA are two (omega-3) essential fatty acids found nearly exclusively in fish and animal foods. These long chain fatty acids are thought to protect against diseases such as: cancer, asthma, depression, cardiovascular disease, ADHD, and autoimmune diseases. Some plant foods contain both linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3) which are essential fatty acids. Some plant based omega-3 (ALA) can be converted into DHA and EPA however, the conversion rates are very low at about 5- 10%. The successful conversion of these ALA’s is dependent on adequate absorption of synergistic nutrients such as zinc and Iron – hmmm!
If we eat too many omega-6 fatty acids this will interfere with the successful conversion of ALA into DHA and EPA. This is why grass fed meats with a higher ratio of 3:6 are important. and why vegans who are eating diets high in omega-6 (which they inevitably are) are less likely to successfully convert ALA into EPA or DHA. (9) (10)

It’s been shown that traditional cultures all have a near equal balance of omega-3 and omega-6 in their diets.
As Nora explains in her wonderful article  here’s a very special fat out there that is found only in the fat of grass-fed and finished animals. CLA or ‘conjugated linoleic acid’ could be one of the most healthful and potent cancer-fighting substances in our diet.

CLA has been proven to – even in amounts we’re likely to eat – can block all three stages of Cancer unlike most “anticancer nutrients” which are only effective in one stage. Research has demonstrated beneficial effects of natural CLA from animal fat have been found in cancers of the breast, prostate, colon and skin.

Correlation is not causation but it can give us clues. Several studies strongly suggest CLA could be particularly helpful in the fight against cancer. In one Finnish study, women who ate the most CLA had a 60 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those who ate the least. Some French researchers sampled the breast tissue of 360 women and found that the women with the most CLA had a staggering 74% lower risk of breast cancer than the women with the least CLA.

In a study that perfectly highlights the need for whole food solution not isolated nutrient supplements; human breast cancer cells were incubated in milk fat high in CLA or in an isolated form of CLA without any milk fat. The milk fat high in CLA decreased the growth of cancer by 90 percent compared to 60%. What was shocking is that some cells were incubated in linoleic acid (the omega-6 fat high in grain and grain-fed animals meat) the growth of the cancer cell increased by 25 percent!

There are more and more studies being done on the preventative properties of CLA against breast and Colon cancer and the findings offer a great deal of hope for those willing to source good grass fed and finished milk, butter and meat.

As Jo Robinson says on ‘Eat Wild’ ‘Many people take a synthetic version that is widely promoted as a diet aid and muscle builder. New research shows that the type of CLA in the pills may have some potentially serious side effects, including promoting insulin resistance, raising glucose levels, and reducing HDL (good) cholesterol.’  You just can’t fake natures processes.

Vegan diets are nearly entirely absent in fat soluble vitamins A and D. Fat-soluble vitamins are critical activators to human health and are found mainly in animal foods particularly seafood, organ meats, eggs and dairy.
Vitamin A has a critical role in maintaining healthy vision, neurological function and healthy skin.
Vitamin D deficiency is common and linked to increased risks of developing common cancers, autoimmune diseases, hypertension, and some infectious disease.

Apart from certain hard to find mushrooms which contain vitamin D, most plant foods don’t contain vitamin A or D. Plants contain beta-carotene which is the precursor to vitamin A but the conversion rates are poor. (12) (13) (14)

Vitamin D levels have been shown to be 74% lower in Vegans than in Omnivores.
To get the same vitamin A hot as a portion of beef liver you would have to eat 14 cups of carrots. We know that in healthy traditional cultures people at up to ten times the amount of Vitamin A than our current RDA. To attain these levels of vitamin A today from plant sources would be virtually impossible. (15) (16)

In 1945 Weston A Price discovered through the chemical testing of the organ meats, eggs and butter eaten by healthy traditional cultures an unknown fat soluble nutrient he called ‘Activator X.’ He discovered that the nutrient was present in higher quantities in the meat, milk, butter and eggs of animals eating quickly growing green plants in healthy pastures.
Dr Price found the nutrient played an influential role in the absorption of minerals, protection from tooth decay, growth and development, protection from disease and the healthy functioning of the brain.
A growing body of scientific work now confirms that the mysterious activator was Vitamin K2 which work synergistically with the other fat soluble activators vitamins A and D and is usually conveniently packaged with them in traditional fatty grass fed animal foods. (17)
Vitamins A and D tell the cells to produce certain proteins and vitamin K then activates these proteins. The K vitamins are also essential for effective blood clotting.

As illustrated in Kate Rheaume-Bleues’ ,‘The Calcium paradox’, vitamin K2 is the transport mechanism that gets calcium to your bones and eating calcium without sufficient K2 will be essentially wasted. Supplementing calcium could even be harmful in the absence of animal foods as it could increase the formation of plaque in the arteries or kidney stones if it’s not utilised in the bones.

Apart from fermented soya ‘natto’ and some other fermented vegetables, plants don’t provide vitamin K2. The K2 found in fermented foods is produced by the bacteria (animals) in the fermenting process. The K1 found in green leafy vegetables has a low conversion rate when ingested directly by humans – approximately 10% .
Vitamin K2 is thought to be one of the main nutrients responsible for the wide facial structures, lack of tooth decay and fine stature of the non-civilised people Weston Price studied in his research.

Weston Price found that ‘the diets of healthy, non-industrialised peoples contain at least four times the minerals and water-soluble vitamins, and ten times the fat-soluble vitamins found in animal fats (vitamin A, vitamin D and Activator X, now thought to be vitamin K2) as the average American diet.’ (18)

Modern diets in ‘civilised’ parts of the world are now based on processed foods, refined grains, sugars and vegetable oils. But even the animal foods we are eating contain only a shadow of the nutrients our ancestor’s wild meats would have offered up.

In one study Cows grazing pasture and receiving no supplemental feed had 500% more conjugated linoleic acid in milk fat than cows fed typical dairy diets. (19)

In another study, fatty acid profiles were significantly modified by different diets in milk cows. CLA, vaccenic acid (VA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) significantly (P < 0.05) increased in plasma as a function of the proportion of pasture added to the diet. (20)

In a study on lamb by Bristol University the favourable fatty acid profiles of lamb improved when lambs where grazed on habitats with a greater diversity of species against a control of lowland pasture.

It’s clear from numerous studies that animals eating a natural diet with produce meat, milk and eggs that are higher in many of the nutrients helpful to human health. It is also clear that the health of the land, diversity of the habitat and breed or species of the animal influences the potential health and therefore the produce it supplies. Choosing produce from animals that have been reared in ways that mimic nature will outperform those which have been reared on un-natural foods in confinement every time.

I need no convincing that a diet high in poor quality and processed animal proteins is bad for your health and I would also like to make it clear that I’m not necessarily suggesting a high-protein diet is a great idea either, especially it reduces the amount of nutrient dense veggies you eat. Individual health, associated eating habits, quality of food choices, hormones, common gene mutations and the composition of our gut microbiome are hugely influential on how successfully we utilise and convert nutrients. Some people will manage very well on a vegetarian diet who others will feel and look terrible. A vegetarian diet based on junk food is a very different deal to a raw food diet which includes pastured eggs and raw milk. We need to be careful about jumping on a bandwagon or making sweeping statements. (21)

That said there’s no credible evidence that being a vegetarian is any healthier than being a health-conscious omnivore. (22)

There are many studies being thrown around to ‘prove’ a vegetarian diet results in better health but in nearly all of them they are loaded with what is known as the ‘healthy user bias.’ The healthy user bias occurs because the type of people who would take a huge step like cutting out an entire food group from their diet in the name of improving their health, are already some of the most health oriented and ethically minded people within society. (23)

To compare vegetarians with a general selection of meat eaters which includes a considerable number of McDonalds eating and sugar addicted elements of society is a tad unfair! But even with a fair heap of healthy user bias included, this study found no difference in mortality rates between vegetarians and meat eaters in the UK. (24)

Here’s an example of why these types of studies don’t prove cause:
This study compared smokers with non-smokers and analysed their consumption of vegetables and other healthy habits.
‘Although Americans as a whole have unhealthy diets, smokers appear to have worse diets than their nonsmoking counterparts. Prior epidemiological studies have shown that smokers consume more fats, alcohol, and caffeine and less fruit, vegetables, and fiber than nonsmokers.5–7 These unhealthy habits are evident even among adolescent smokers. Teenage smokers are more likely to skip meals8,9 and eat less healthy foods10 than their nonsmoking counterparts’.
From this study, you could conclude that smoking somehow stops you eating vegetables. The more sensible conclusion, however, is that people who smoke aren’t educated in healthy eating choices or don’t give a hoot about their health.

Thankfully there is one study that does consider this healthy user bias. This study compared omnivores and vegetarians that both shopped in health food stores and found no significant differences in rates of mortality even though vegetarians are likely to be consuming far higher amounts of nutrient dense vegetables.

This study also studied omnivores and vegetarians that were considered healthier than the average population and found no statistically significant differences in rates of mortality.

Being a healthy vegetarian seems to be as achievable as being a healthy omnivore, but remaining healthy as a vegan for a prolonged period is a far harder task. Vegans need to supplement heavily and there’s little room for ‘empty’ calories; every mouthful should contribute towards a carefully planned nutritional plan that fills all the gaps.

Be aware that we have no historic evidence of any healthy cultures that didn’t eat at least some animal foods, nor do we have any long-term evidence of vegans that have maintained robust health for more than one generation. If you choose to follow this diet you’re part of a rather uncertain human experiment!

I would love to hear your thoughts on ‘Are you missing out? The potential nutrient deficiencies of a vegan diet’ below.

For many more links to relevant research and evidence please take a look at the ‘healthy Omnivore‘ board.

 

Is eating meat bad for your health
Is eating meat bad for your health?

Is eating meat bad for your health?

Nutrition , , , 0
19Oct

Is eating meat bad for your health?

 

Do you ever wonder if eating meat is bad for your health?

Meat and high protein diets have come in for some pretty bad press recently, but is it justified?

It seems the vast majority of studies that suggest a correlation between eating meat and disease are ‘observational’ studies.
he fundamental problem with observational studies in this context is that they don’t take into account that many people who eat a high protein diet also have other VERY bad dietary habits which could be a more significant cause of their poor health.

The fundamental problem with observational studies in this context is that they don’t take into account that many people who eat a high protein diet also have other VERY bad dietary habits which could be a more significant cause of their poor health. This is the opposite to the ‘healthy user bias’ found when studying vegetarians who usually demonstrate other health promoting activities besides what they eat.

If you think about it, many people who eat high quantities of meat also eat high quantities of refined carbohydrates – perhaps grain fed burgers with a sugary refined bread bun washed down with cola!

Some people who eat meat will smoke, drink, sit on their bums all day and eat sweets. Others will be fit, eat a huge range of nutrient dense vegetables, de-stress with yoga and only eat organic meat.

Correlation is NOT causation.

These studies never distinguish between high-quality nutrient-dense animal proteins – like those from 100% grass fed animals, and meat from intensively reared animals that have eaten mainly grain. The effect of these two types of meat on your body is profound.

There are countless great reasons backed up with credible evidence that eating good quality meat is a very healthy thing to do.

 

Here is the respected Functional Medicine Doctor Dr M Hyman on the topic of ‘Is eating meat bad for your health’.

Frankly spinning scientific research one way and another to suit a moral standpoint isn’t of much help, who said we have to have empirical evidence to make sound judgements anyway?

In these situations, I personally try and bring it back to good old common sense.

My qualifying question is this; Does it make sense that the very food that we are designed to eat and have thrived on, for 100,000s years would suddenly cause a wide range of diseases unknown to our Palaeolithic ancestors? I think not!

What has changed is the quality of the meat we eat and the other things we eat, drink and do.
We will be diving into these subjects in more detail in upcoming articles.

Caroline x

Here is my friend Diana on Meat, Cancer and Sustainability.

This is a fantastic post on the healthiness of eating meat.

Here is Chris Kresser on Eating Meat

Zoe Harcombe has written a wonderful in-depth response to the WHO meat and Cancer report.

Ignite a consumer revolution
Do you want to help ignite a consumer revolution?

Do you want to help ignite a consumer revolution?

Sustainability 0
06Oct

Do you want to ignite a consumer revolution?

Ignite a consumer revolution

If you have read any of my articles or looked at our bio you will know that I’m deeply passionate about the environment, animal welfare and healthy food. It probably won’t be a huge surprise to realise that the motivating aim for Primal Meats is to use it as a tool for influencing change in the way our animals and land are being farmed and to provide customers with a level of nutrition not easily found in ‘conventional’ meat.
There is a perception in society that business people are hard-nosed; exploit customers, the environment and animals to make a profit – sadly it’s sometimes true.

But, how does this happen? Most small-scale businesses are born from a passion for a product or solution, I doubt they set out to exploit anyone. Being in business is really tough; perhaps year after year failing to make enough profit leads to tough choices. Shaving costs off every transaction, squeezing every drop out of the workforce to maximise productivity and buying from the cheapest supplier is common practice in order to stay afloat or remain competitive. Click the image below for the true cost accounting video. 
Patrick Holden and the Sustainable Food Trust are championing ‘True Cost Accounting’

We are all part of this process too. Most people won’t pay the ACTUAL cost of producing something well if there is a cheaper option available – especially if the consequences of the cheaper option aren’t highlighted. We don’t see the factory farmed animals, the giant ‘efficient’ slaughter houses, the lakes of slurry, the soil losing vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, the rivers destroyed by chemical pollutants, the exploited third world workforce and we don’t notice that what we are eating is merely a shadow of the delicious nutritious food of our grandparents!

In the 1950’s food costs made up about 1/3rd of the household income; nowadays this figure is less than 10%!

The hidden costs of producing cheap food don’t disappear, they are simply shifted. The cost of cleaning up waste, the increased health care needs through consumption of toxic food, the subsidies paid to farmers and the income support given to for poorly treated workers are all paid by US.

I have a dream: one day there will be businesses that can pay their staff (and themselves!) fairly, regenerate the environment with every action, delight their customers with their products AND actually make a profit in order to stay in the game long-term. In this business model, all the ‘true costs’ are accounted for.

Do you know what? It’s up to us to make this happen.

I have for years been a huge advocate of the Savory Institute and Allan Savory’s work in regenerating our grasslands as a way to reverse climate change, heal displaced communities and address the disastrous loss of diversity that is destroying ecosystems worldwide.

Up until last year, it was only a fantasy that I could become involved in such inspiring work.

Guess what?

The first UK hub – 3LM – opened in January 2016 and I was one of the first in the pipeline to become an accredited professional in Holistic Management. With this, I continue to encourage farmers to not only to step away from using ‘inputs’ but to focus their attention on regenerating their land for the sake of the planet and their profits. Regenerating land builds soil health, natural fertility and resistance to flood, drought and disease. In the process of building soil, large amounts of atmospheric carbon can be sequestered making a really huge contribution toward reversing climate change.

As a supporter of Primal Meats, you have helped us increase the demand for high welfare, healthy and sustainable meat – it’s obvious you really care. Rearing 100% grass-fed animals is one very important piece of this puzzle but in order to regenerate soil and sequester CO2, sometimes other principles also need to be in play.

There are only a handful of inspiring Farmers in the UK farming to this level; we need to learn from them and encourage their success.

Rebecca Hosking explains Holistic Management and Holistic planned grazing click the image below.

Rebecca Hosking explains what Holistic Planned Grazing (a tool used in Holistic Management) is all about.

Roger and Gilly who farm on the stunning Isle of Lismore are also planning their grazing and managing for soil health and biodiversity. They’re excited about the results they’ve had and are working hard to teach others what they’ve learned so far.

Roger, Gilly and Rebecca are pioneering a better understanding of how best to maximise the productivity of our UK grasslands while increasing the land’s capacity to make more food, lock down atmospheric carbon and become flood and drought resistant, all while increasing the potential for wildlife to thrive.

I’m a big believer in customers having a stake in, or at least an influence on how a business works. Your money spent in a supermarket is probably lost in a big greedy machine.

Your money directed at passionate, regenerative farmers or growers could keep that business afloat and enable them to inspire other growers to do the same – that’s an incredible power of influence you have right there in your wallet.

Stephen and I have decided to support any Farmers in the UK who start to manage their land regeneratively through Holistic Management. We will offer to sell their meat and other animal products through Primal Meats on our ‘wholly cow‘ platform. Please help us drive this campaign by spreading the word and to consider buying some of the produce when it becomes available. We’ll keep you updated.

Click the image below to watch the film launching the ‘eat it, wear it, regenerate it’ campaign.

Take a look at the campaign video to understand why only YOU have the power to make this happen.

Check out our shop to continue supporting innovative family farms.

Thank you so much for your continued support. Please share this email with anyone you think may find it interesting.

Caroline x

Grass fed meat health claims

Grass fed meat health claims

Nutrition 0
25Aug

I have been studying nutrition for many years and generally advocate an omnivore diet of organic veggies, grass fed meats (including all the cuts and offal) and healthful fats. I thought it would be useful to compile a range of articles and studies that I have read over the years to illustrate why I suggest follow this diet and believe it to be the healthiest choice for most people.

Organic grass fed lamb cutlets

If you want to learn more about the ancestral health approach we recommend take a look at this page on our sister web site

I address the sustainability and moral issues around eating meat in other places, but below is a board I have created for anyone digging into the facts and myths around the health reasons for including grass-fed meat in your diet.

Grass fed meat health claims

 

Maasai
Primal meats working to help the Maasai in Kenya.

Primal meats working to help the Maasai in Kenya.

Nutrition, Sustainability 0
19Aug

Maasai Primal Solution

It’s difficult for us to imagine how it must feel to see your family and friends hungry, thirsty and dying. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to see one after one of your precious animal’s die of thirst. But after being thrown into a drought of unprecedented severity this is exactly what Dalmas and many of his Maasai community had to endure.

Maasai.

Having practised his traditional rites as a Maasai young man, Dalmas went to a local rural primary school and then continued on to Moi University to complete Bachelors and Masters Degrees. He then worked at a public university for seven years but it wasn’t long before he felt a loss of identity and a deep longing for his old home and life.

He recounts: ‘I love my culture, I love livestock, especially cattle and sheep and I felt the only life for me was to go back to the village and be a herder. This is a life of peace and fulfilment.’

The Maasai people of East Africa live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania along the Great Rift Valley on semi-arid and arid lands. The Maasai occupy a total land area of 160,000 square kilometres with an estimated population of 841,622 people. Dalmas is from the Kajiado County in Kenya.

Maasai

The Maasai, are pastoralists which mean they graze animals for both income and food. Their grasslands have long supported a semi-nomadic lifestyle that provides a healthy diet of meat, milk, herbal soup, some honey and occasionally fresh blood – the perfect ‘primal diet,’ This nutrient dense high protein diet has produced some of the world’s finest human physical specimens. Maasai people are renowned for being very tall and muscular, practically disease free and definitely win the prize for biggest warm smile full of perfect pearly teeth!

Maasai

The traditional Maasai sense of community is incredibly strong, is well organised and functions harmoniously. The women are responsible for the homes – simple ‘kraals’ of mud, sticks, grass and dung arranged in a circle surrounded by protective thorns – collecting water and milking livestock.

 

The men offer protection and security as warriors or wisdom and organisational structure as elders. Boys are traditionally responsible for herding the cattle, sheep and goats with the help of the warriors when droughts of trouble take them further afield or if families decide to send the boys to school.

Dalmas says: ‘The leader of each age set is selected by elders who scrutinise family background and genealogy to see whether the potential candidates’ families are people who love peace and justice and show qualities of braveness.’

Dalmas

As a healthy people medical intervention is rarely required however highly effective treatments even for fractures and tumours – come in the form of herbal remedies; the skills of healers are still highly valued above and beyond more Westernised forms of medicine.

So Dalmas started a plan to leave his employment and return to be a Maasai herder and raise grass-fed beef cattle in the traditional pastoral system. He took a bank loan and managed to accumulate enough money to build a herd of 127 cows, he resigned from his job and returned to his Maasai community.

Maasai Cattle

Dalmas remembers: ‘The community was so happy and our elders really loved that, after getting a University degree I was coming home and investing in our village. I become a role model for our young people and was highly respected for understanding what is really important in life; community, good health and a sense of identity.’

But after several dry years the ultimate disaster struck, the drought became so severe that everything changed. The watering holes, rivers and wells dried up and the animals – the main source of nutrition for the Maasai – started to die. Eventually, 90% of all the livestock belonging to the community died; Dalmas was left with only 14 cows.

Maasai

Image of dying livestock in Kenya’s Droughts from the Guardian.

Dalmas remembers: ‘my community were reduced to beggars who depended on food relief to survive, this food was poor quality and a very different from what we were used to so made us sick. I saw children die of malnutrition and lack of water and old people dying of starvation.’

‘People started coming to me for help, I had a little money so helped buy food, but the food was being sold expensively by exploitative business people who hoarded it in order to raise demand to increase their profits.’

Even though Dalmas lost his livestock along with it his dream, he has vowed to help his people protect themselves from future droughts that a changing climate will inevitably strike.

Dalmas has created a non-profit organisation called ‘Ildalalekutuk Maasai Action for Development.’ His organisation looks for partners to solve the problems and bring about a liberated, independent and prosperous Maasai society. One of the core objectives of the resilience measures being investigated is the use of ‘holistic planned grazing’ which has been shown to regenerate grasslands that are turning into desert. Watch this short video below. Holistic planned grazing makes grasslands more resilient to drought and flooding.

I have been passionate about Alan Savory’s work and holistic planned grazing for four years and over the last year have been training to become a Professional in Holistic management and planned grazing. I want to be able to help farms in the UK to move towards a regenerative model.

 

Kenya Drought

 

Primal web and Primal Meats will be campaigning and raising awareness in support of creating a ‘Centre of regenerative pastoralism’ for Dalmas and his Organisation. The Centre will develop and train Maasai pastoralists in a more regenerative approach to herding and grazing their livestock. It will also act as a research centre on Maasai pastoralism, traditional knowledge, ethnobotany of the Maasai etc.

Stephen and I will be visiting Kenya in December to offer our services in holistic management and sustainable building to put together plans for the development.

We hope to raise funds to:

1) Purchase a four wheel drive vehicle to transport experts and trainees to the centre and across the vast terrain.
2) Build a classroom suitable for training the Maasai pastoralists in holistic planned grazing.
3) Build a basic accommodation facility to accommodate visiting scientist and experts and generate self-funding through conservation tourism.
4) Buy 60 acres on which to conserve climate resilient breeds and demonstrate holistic planned grazing on a smaller scale.

Not only will regenerating the grasslands of Kenya help provide food and water security for the Maasai, the carbon captured in the process of building soil and biodiversity will reduce the atmospheric Greenhouse load for the rest of the world.

As farmers and consumers, we all have a part to play in the climate change that is destroying the lives of these people and will eventually destroy our lives too if we don’t act soon.
I can think of no better cause than to support a ‘primal culture’ through farming their own ‘primal meats.’

This is all part of our Primal Solution. Learn more about how healing the land can address many of the world’s BIG issues HERE.

So we need YOUR help.

We are pledging a £1 to this cause for every sale we receive through Primal Meats.

YOU can make a donation below if you also want to help get this cause off the ground and of course, we will keep you updated on our progress.

Please also share this post to help us spread the word.
Caroline x

 

DONATE HERE

Is it environmentally sustainable to eat meat?

Uncategorized , 0
12Aug

Is it environmentally sustainable to eat meat?

We held a live webinar recently that was really well attended but thought you may like the chance to view the replay for free. We will be posting three webinar videos tackling all angles of the criticisms we often receive as meat eaters this is the first and the next two will cover the ethical issues around eating meats and the health effects of eating meat. In the mean time take a look at these three articles on those subjects.

Is it morally right to eat meat? 

The diet that created modern humans.

Why were traditional diets so healthy?

An omnivore diet can be more sustainable than a vegan diet – learn how It has become an accepted ‘fact’ that eating the meat is bad for the environment and that becoming vegan is the answer to saving the planet but is it true?

Let’s take a look.

Please share this video if like it. Thanks, Caroline x

Is an vegan diet more sustainable then an omnivore diet? Probably not!

Holistic management
Are you a livestock farmer looking for a long term solution that will reduce fertiliser costs?

Are you a livestock farmer looking for a long term solution that will reduce fertiliser costs?

Uncategorized 0
20Apr

So perhaps YOU are one of the many livestock farmers who are locked into the seemingly inevitable decision every spring of paying your ‘dealer’ exorbitant wads of cash in exchange for a ‘fix’ that no longer delivers its high?

 

With the advent of inorganic fertilisers, land managers had a flexible, simple, relatively cost-effective tool for increasing the productivity of land to reduce livestock finishing times, add condition to breeding stock at critical times and to guarantee a bumper crop of silage or hay to secure your winter feed requirements. At first, the costs seem reasonable and the results tangible, but over time things don’t seem to be working as well.

 

A growing number of innovative farmers are starting to deepen their knowledge of the world below their feet in order to reduce their feed and fertiliser costs whilst increasing the resilience and carrying capacity of their land.

 

 

Here are a few facts that you probably won’t hear from your average farm rep;

 

 

• Natural soil fertility depends on a healthy underground army of micro-organisms to exchange sunlight for nutrients.
• These micro-organisms build soil organic matter which supports healthy plant growth.
• Healthy plants contain the full spectrum of nutrients in their most digestible form required by ruminants to maximise health.
• Healthy soil is critical for ruminant bacterial health which directly influences productivity.
• When livestock are consistently given a diet of mineral-rich native grasses, served up on clean pasture everyday, it can significantly reduce    expenditures on medicines, supplements, dips and vaccines.

 

 

Inorganic fertilisers damage and kill soil microorganisms which over a period of time will dramatically reduce your soil’s natural fertility, resilience to droughts and floods and its ability to keep your livestock healthy.

 

The modern view of a farming will take each component of management and try to maximise productivity or profitability.

 

An example would be the simplistic view that a mineral block, bolus or feed additive can provide the missing nutrient highlighted on a test undertaken by your vet. But our most recent scientific findings of how animals and humans assimilate nutrients allows us to see that picture is far more sophisticated than this. If nutrients are not in a bio-available form, the gut microbiome of the ruminant has been negatively impacted by medicines or the additive nutrients are not in the correct balance, your high costing supplements could be splattering between the slats!

 

In the context of a simple soil analysis, you may be told that your soil needs more of certain minerals; but new research is showing us that it’s a complex underground army of organisms that keep the whole thing ‘productive.’ The fertilisers and mineral additives you are using – and paying hard earned cash for – could be directly reducing your lands ability to grow plants and support your livestock in the future.

 

This aspect of modern agriculture reminds me of the perfect drug dealer’s scenario; we have created an addiction that ensures continued and increasing reliance. There’s only one winner here, and it’s not you!

 

But there’s hope. Over 3 Million Ha of land is being managed under people who have trained in ‘Holistic Management’, this system has been developed to guide land managers through the process of repairing their land and building natural fertility; often using livestock as one of their most effective tools. Holistic management can help any farm, anywhere, increase productivity whilst reducing input costs. There are a growing number of forward-thinking farmers in the UK jumping on board.

 

This is a wonderful video of one US farmer’s journey of realising that ‘chemical farming’ methods were leading them on a path to nowhere and how they now have one of the most productive farms in the world. He outlines impressive hard economic facts too.

 

 

So if you are curious or perhaps sceptical about what holistic management could do for you, then you’re in luck. Here  is an introductory webinar (online training session) where you can watch a presentation and ask questions about how holistic management could help you leave your farm in better health than when you took it on.

 

Caroline x

 

There are dozens of scientific studies and interesting articles HERE to dig into if you want references and research for these concepts.

Hereford Beef
Introducing Model Farm

Introducing Model Farm

beef, Cow Share, Farms, Sustainability, Welfare 0
23Sep

We work with this inspiring Family be able to offer you some of the best beef available in the UK through our ‘cow share’ way of purchasing. Read why it is so important to support farmers like these.

Model Farm

Simon Cutter Farms on the wonderful rich pastures and meadows of Model farm, near Ross on Wye in Herefordshire.

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Simon Cutter is the founder of Model Farm Society. Educated at Cirencester Agricultural College between 1977-1980, he has studied and practised traditional farming for over 30 years including time spent farming in Australia. Simon has been a pioneer in the rearing of Organic livestock and produce long before the ‘Organic bandwagon’ started to roll in the wake of the BSE crisis in the early 1990′s

Model Farm is home to a herd of 270 Hereford Beef Cattle and 400 Easy care ewes on sustainably managed grassland and forage crops. Simon’s cattle and sheep are 100% pasture fed and receive NO grains. Model Farm is managed to soil association standards for Organic status, the land receives no in-organic fertilisers or sprays and a forage crop rotation system produces natural organic foods for any winter feeds required.

‘Easy Care’ is a breed of sheep ideally suited to this topography and organic management system. They require minimal management and even shed their own fleece, so don’t require shearing. The torpedo shaped head of the lambs allows for easy lambing and Simon’s careful selective breeding program has led to the health of the flock to be nothing less than exceptional in the absence of routine medical intervention. The sheep require a small amount of supplementary feed in winter and this is provided by way of a home grown red clover hay.

Of the 270 Cattle, 100 hundred are breeding cows, the health of the herd is outstanding and the vet visiting is a very rare occurrence. There is NO routine medicines used and Simon maintains, that with extensive healthy grassland and soils, the cows and sheep receive all the nutrients they need to stay healthy from the diverse range of plants they eat.

Autumn 2013 212

The Hereford breeding stock stay outdoors on pasture, all year round. Hereford Cattle are a hardy traditional British breed originating in this area so are ideally suited to its climate and terrain. The young stock usually come in for the wettest parts of the year to avoid poaching the delicate grassland. Indoors the young stock will be bedded on local straw and fed Lucerne silage. Lucerne is a green, nutrient dense plant that grows very deep roots, it can access reservoirs of minerals not normally available to normal grasses and is considered a ‘superfood’.

The Beef is outstanding, due to the diet of the cattle consisting ONLY of natural herb rich plant matter and organic home grown super foods. The animals are getting all the minerals and vitamins they need and these will naturally pass on a range of these beneficial nutrients to you. The beef  is dry aged for a minimum of 21 days.

Simon is ‘pasture for life‘ certified.

Simon handles all the transportation to a local abattoir and the meat will be cut by Simon’s butcher on the Model farm in a new purpose build unit.

Belted galloway Beef
Introducing Hill Top Farm, Malham

Introducing Hill Top Farm, Malham

Cow Share, Farms, Sustainability 0
23Sep

We work with this inspiring couple to be able to offer you some of the best beef available in the UK through our ‘cow share’ way of purchasing. Read why it is so important to support farmers like these.

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Hill Top Farm

Neil Heseltine with Partner Leigh Weston farm the very beautiful ‘Hill Top Farm’ at Malham in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Neil and Leigh are passionate about producing 100% pasture fed beef from their 100 strong herd of Belted Galloway Cattle.

The Cattle are grazed all year round on limestone pastures and are never housed. In the most extreme of winters if the cattle need extra sustenance they are fed home grown hay or silage.

This is no hardship for these animals, Belted Galloway Cattle are renowned for their hardy and agile nature and are well equipped for the wind and cold they will experience on the higher Moors of this extensive Farm. Originating in South West Scotland the breed is very distinctive due to its ‘belt’ of white on a black, dun or red body.

Belted Galloway Cattle are incredibly efficient at converting rough grassland into very fine quality beef.

The beef these animal produce is exceptional, due to their diet consisting ONLY of natural herb rich plant matter. The animals get all the minerals and vitamins they need for supreme health in their diet and therefore need no medical intervention. No anti biotic residues here! The meat they produce will naturally pass on a range of these beneficial nutrients to you, and is arguably among the most nutritious meat you can buy.

“All our cattle are finished on grass or occasionally hay, they do not get fed grains at all,” LEIGH

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This breed of cattle are at their best and most content when allowed to express their natural instincts. If managed in harmony with their nature you will see them wandering as a herd over the large open areas, occasionally wallowing in the watering areas. The ‘in-calf’ Cows will sneak off to calve and keep the newly born calf hidden for a few days until it is strong enough to be with the herd.

Limestone pasture is a delicate habitat that has been damaged by increased sheep grazing over the last few decades. Sheep graze only the most palatable grasses, and in many areas this has resulted in the rare and important species becoming choked by rank grasses. Hardy native cattle are ideal for restoring the diverse range of flora, their grazing action is less selective so reduces the long grasses. The grazing and trampling action opens up pockets of soil allowing important native species to successfully re-seed. Neil and Leigh farm the Belted Galloway cattle as part of a conservation scheme to regenerate these delicate and important habitats.

The couple Farm within a very High Tier of Higher Level Scheme which encourages farmers to manage land for the benefit of the environment.

“IT RESTRICTS YOU IN TERMS OF WHAT NUMBERS YOU CAN GRAZE, THE TIMINGS OF GRAZING AND WHAT YOU CAN FEED THE ANIMALS, AMONG OTHER THINGS, BUT I DON’T SEE ANY OF IT AS A HINDRANCE. I DO IT BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN IT.

“I BELIEVE THIS IS HOW AGRICULTURE SHOULD BE. THE KEY FOR ME IS IT SHOULD BE SUSTAINABLE, ENVIRONMENTALLY AND FINANCIALLY- NEIL.

The couple are so passionate about sustainable Farming that they do not ‘finish’ the Cattle, they simply allow them to continue grazing year after year until they reach the correct conformation for slaughter. This is often more than double the duration of a commercial grain fed beef animal.

Belted galloways

Neil and Leigh want to see their good work continued to the very end, by working through us, to reach out to ‘conscious consumers’ they can make sure the nutritious ethical meat they have spent several years bringing to your table will be FULLY appreciated.

 

High Welfare Meat
High Welfare Meat

High Welfare Meat

Welfare 0
09Sep

I would like to make something clear, we are not about anthropomorphising animals (and in fact cannot even say it!).

We do not think animals should not be treated like humans and accept that pets are treated differently to the animals that produce our food.

Farm animals are bred and reared for the sole purpose of feeding us, any meat eater should accept  this fact instead of ‘delegating’  the morally hard choices to someone else, then criticising it when it goes wrong!

Anybody who has decided they can not live with the moral responsibility of eating meat, frankly, should turn vegetarian. If you are a vegetarian for this reason, I salute you and wish more people would make a stand for what they believe in.

If you are a meat eater, I hope you understand that there are thousands of different systems, run by millions of different characters, in hundreds of different countries that produce your meat.

There are some general principles of purchase and labels carrying regulation that may help you chose meat less likely to be neglected or reared in conditions that are unacceptable.  RSPCA Freedom foods, Organic Certification among others, will offer detailed standards to potential customers and inspect producers to try and hold them to these standards.

The principle and terminology of ‘free range’, ‘grass fed’ and ‘outdoor bred’ may give you some indication of what system has been used to produce your meat but it is very difficult to prove and regulate that the system is producing high welfare meat – it is wide open to abuse, in more than one way!

At the end of the day, when that inspector has walked away from their short Farm visit for another year, how are these regulations going to be enforced? They can’t be.

‘WE DON’T NEED A LAW AGAINST MCDONALS OR A LAW AGAINST SLAUGHTERHOUSE ABUSE, WE ASK FOR TOO MUCH SALVATION BY LEGISLATION. ALL WE NEED IS TO EMPOWER INDIVIDUALS WITH THE RIGHT PHILOSOPHY AND THE RIGHT INFORMATION TO OPT OUT EN MASSE’
JOEL SALATIN.

So how do we guarantee high welfare meat?

Well, we think it is down to judging the character of those who rear our animals. To get to the heart of issue you need to find out several things.

  • Why are they farming or running this business? Is it just for profit? because that what their family has always done, or because they are passionate about the environment and the animals they rear?
  • How do they talk about and act around animals? what terminology do they use? is it respectful? does it indicate empathy?
  • When they handle their livestock, are they gentle with an understanding of how the animals tick? Do they appreciate and work with the animals instinctive social and mothering habits?
  • Are their animals healthy? Is there any tell tale signs of neglect, disease, poor land management or indications that they are not thriving? Only another stock-person could judge.
  • Are there any hints that they are just not being truthful about what they are saying?

By working closely with our farmers and getting to know their characters we can make the best possible choices of who we can trust to produce our meat.

Grazing animals are designed to eat plants and require large amounts of fibre in their diet for their digestion to work correctly. When an animal is fed a grain based diet the nutrients are supplied very quickly, enabling the animal to fatten faster, returning a better profit.

Unfortunately this allows fermentation acids to accumulate in the rumen, stops the animal absorbing essential nutrients and often leads to ulcers and eventually abscesses on the liver. Anti biotics are then required (in some parts of the world these are routinely fed and added to the food) to manage the disease. The anti-biotics alter the microbial balance of the animals gut, leaving it the perfect place for pathogens to flourish.

In the US, feed lot beef is often subject to mass recalls due the difficulty in managing the e-coli problem, particularly worrying are the strains that seem to be resistant to the acid shock of the stomach. Farmers now face the problem that some animals are no longer responding to anti-biotics due to their overuse. There are also concerns over the effect of eating anti-biotic residues in the animal flesh and the effect this may have on humans.

Animals are designed to graze, moving around in the sun and the rain, they are acting in a natural way and therefore their welfare state is high. The ‘pasture for life’ label ensures that animals have been grazing and eating pasture for their whole life. By default this will allow them to have had a higher quality of life.

Grazing animals have adapted over thousands of years to know when something is wrong with their health, and what they need to eat in order to self-medicate. In extensive grazing systems, it is interesting to see the animals eating different plants and trees at different times of year. The grazing action keeps their teeth and gums clean and healthy and a farmers running a pasture based system rarely have to intervene medically with their stock, often they calve easily, lameness is rare, there is no need for mineral supplements and requirement of a vet is dramatically reduced if not eliminated.

 

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sustainable meat
Sustainable meat – how it all went wrong!

Sustainable meat – how it all went wrong!

Sustainability 0
09Sep

Sustainable Meat – Where did it all go wrong!
In the UK we are lucky to have avoided (on the whole) the huge industrialised farming units of America, but much of our meat is still reared on cereals and the animals many don’t get the chance to see the great outdoors let alone eat a blade of grass!

How did it get to this?

The use of cereal feeds came about at the time of subsidised arable production when grain prices were falsely low. Around the same time, grasses and cereal plants were cleverly manipulated and planted in place of mixed herb rich grassland. These rye grass leys and strains of grain plants, yield much higher if supplied with N P K fertilisers, these fertilisers were still relatively affordable at the time and the use of fossil fuels was not so obviously unsustainable.
The outcome was a move away from traditional pasture reared livestock, to ‘finishing’ systems based on housing animals and feeding them cheap grains (and often food factory waste products too, I worked on a farm that fed Cadbury’s rejects, wrappers included!). Much land turned over to producing crops and inexpensive fertilisers replaced farm yard manure. Often the same crop is planted year after year and grassland was deemed unprofitable.

It worked quite well until –

Grain prices sky rocketed in correlation with exorbitant petro-chemical prices and unsustainable supply of fossil fuels.
The soils became degraded and unable to retain their moisture, so need regular irrigation. The soil is unstable, so after every heavy rain storm, tonnes of soil washes down becks and gullies.
Cultivated land hold less water too so it is much more likely are lower land and towns will flood.
The carbon that was once safely locked up in healthy nourishing humus, has been released into the atmosphere and is contributing to our climate change.
Our cereals and vegetables are depleted of essential vitamins and minerals as there is little to uptake from the soil.
The livestock that are fed these depleted cereals, are less healthy, need routine medical intervention and produce food that is of a very poor quality in comparison to the nutritious, delicious, grass fed meats, milk and eggs of early in the last century.

Aren’t we clever!

So let’s have a look at a pre war system, in my opinion this was the time when the lessons of the last 10,000 years of agriculture came to a perfect point and the land was able to produce optimal amounts of nutritious foods. People were healthier, animals were healthier and the planet was healthy.

Most farms adopted a ‘mixed farm’ and its greatest highly valued asset was its pasture.  The benefit to the soils health from this system is great, grass transfers the sun’s energy into food for a whole underground world of organisms. Microbes in the soil are responsible for breaking the organic matter in soil and recycling the nutrients into a form that can be taken up by plants. In the process they ‘lock up carbon’ taking harmful CO2 out of the atmosphere and keeping it safe below ground.

This wonderful pasture contains a diverse range of plants and flowers, some of these plants have very deep roots that can tap into deeper nutrient stores including water in times of drought.  The various species flower and seed at different times, ensuring a good balance of lush rich grass with fibrous material throughout the growing season, perfect for maintaining gut health in grazing animals.
The deep rooted sward stabilises the soil and prevents it from washing away in floods. The grazing animals have a secure and nutrient dense food source that will last all year round.
Our uplands act as a sponge to provide a slow release of water into the rivers and valleys.
When required, the fertile pasture can be ploughed and vegetables or cereal crops can be planted, its natural fertility is enough to produce a bumper crop without need for chemical fertilisers.
The use of the fields would be rotated to prevent fertility loss and manage any disease transfer.

I addition to the global climate benefits of the pasture based system, there is a great local biodiversity advantage too. A mixed farm landscape is ideal for flora and fauna and will have a range of different habitats to allow multiple species to thrive.

Traditional regional breeds of animals are well adapted to survive some very hostile grazing environments. Mountains, cliffs and fells are unable to produce food that requires cultivated land, they can however, still contribute sustainable meat, by providing grazing for hardy breeds. It is vital to maintain regional diversity and support rare breeds, each breed has particular characteristics that have evolved to adapt them to the local topography, climate and terrain.

You may be sceptical about the profitability of a mixed farm type system and may question if it can really produce enough food to feed our hugely increasing global population. The answer is yes.

It is very difficult to quantify the volume of food produced from a mixed farm as, by its nature, it is producing a mix of vegetables, grains, meats, eggs and milk. A hectare of modern arable land producing a high yielding crop of grain may produce an impressive tonnage, however remember that the grain may then end up being fed to animals to indirectly produce food.
Almost half the British wheat crop is fed to animals, to produce 1KG of beef it takes 8KG of wheat grains. Modern grain usually requires irrigation, fertilisers, and harvesting it is usually ‘carbon’ heavy. The food that is produced is unlikely to nourish us well, and the range of species we are regularly eating are becoming fewer.  In times of drought and flood this system is very prone to failure so offers poor food security.

In the 1950’s Andre Voisin did a series of studies on grazing productivity and eventually published his remarkable findings in the hugely popular ‘grass productivity’. He concluded that with a particular way of grazing (now called mob grazing) grassland could produce more food per hectare than arable crops. This method was well accepted and followed in the UK but sadly fell out of favour with the introduction of Subsidies. The Government generously encouraged the growing of crops through the EU Common Agricultural Policy and made it impossible for a business minded farmer to ignore.

I think it’s time to take a long, hard, objective look at how we produce our food. You can vote with your pound, seek out producers who refuse to take leave of their inherent wisdom and stubbornly keep producing great food in a way that benefits us all.

Mutton

Mutton

mutton 0
08Sep

 

organic grass fed lamb strips

 

Mutton

Mutton was, up until the Second World War, a delicious meat fit for kings. The Victorians including Mrs Beaton consumed it with a passion, so why is it now considered a fatty chewy second rate product.

Pre war cooking methods were ideal for cooking mutton, before the ‘fast food’ revolution most food was cooked long and slow on a range, instant heat from gas and electric was not available.

Mutton was in times gone by, meat from the sheep at the end of a sheep’s useful life. In these days sheep were kept primarily for wool production (certainly not the case now) so female and male sheep would be kept for many years to get multiple wool clips.  The animals would be grass fed and the skilled shepherds would know how to ‘finish’ the animal to produce superb meat. Careful hanging and butchery and an experienced housewife would then produce delicious meals with this beautiful product.

During the war most of the skills involved in producing fine mutton disappeared with the men who were fighting, the reputation of this meat was further degraded by some of the worst examples of mutton being cooked badly for large volumes of people during the blackouts. The stigma of Mutton being, tough, old, fatty meat has proved to be a difficult one to shake off.

Mutton’s fate was sealed, when during the war meat production had to be fast and efficient, favouring the use of young lamb. The demise in the wool industry further compounded the situation and effectively made Mutton a bygone product.

So what is Mutton? It is generally agreed that although once upon a time the best Mutton would be primarily from male castrated sheep of about five years. Nowadays Mutton is considered to be sheep meat from ewes or wether’s (castrated males) of over two years in age. The crucial quality factor, in my opinion,  is that the  animals are ‘finished’ on a forage based diet (grass ,hay, plant) and that the carcass is ‘hung’ on the bone to tenderise for two to three weeks.

Really Mutton is to lamb what beef is to veal, it is the more flavoursome product. The very best time to eat Mutton is from October to March as this is when it has had all summer to benefit from the nutritious grass, enhancing the flavour of the meat as well as being higher in levels of nutrients. Happily this is also the time that the weather encourages us to hearty meals that have been slowly cooked, dishes which mutton suits very well.

Savvy chefs and restaurant owners have cottoned on to the fact that there is a growing desire for ‘old fashioned’ menu options. A modern population now has a tendency to eat quick food at home and dine out on the long slow food that was once a homely staple. Thankfully once again a finely produced mutton can be sourced from producers who are tapping into this growing trend.

 

Mutton carries rich and strong flavours really well, but also makes a superb roasting joint that needs no enhancing, like lamb a good mutton loin can be served pink and will be beautifully tender and succulent.

So let’s not assume mutton needs to dress up as lamb – as with so many things in life – maturity brings, depth, sophistication, and superior characteristics that are simply in a class of their own.