permaculture

[jknapp@pacific.net (John Knapp)]

At 8:44 AM 6/14/99, sbonney@iquest.net wrote:
>
>Dr. Weston Price (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation) in his search of
>villages,
>tribes, etc.that ate only indiginous foods and none of the displacing foods 
>of
>commerce never found a vegan society that had good nutrition as he measured
>by
>good dentition (straight teeth without caries and well formed dental arches).

Steve's reply caught my attention since my cash income comes from
practicing dentistry a couple days a week in a local community clinic.

It has been a few years since I read Dr. Price's book and the information
from his foundation.  To the best of my memory he  never found a vegan
society and the point he was making was the differences in physical
development between those eating an indigenous diet and those who ate a
processed, non-indigenous diet.  The pictures are fascinating, but his
science was a little weak(although excellent for his time).

Nevertheless, his main assertions were certainly consistent with the idea
and benefits of growing and eating locally, and reinforced the role of good
nutrition in human development.

>Many people, including myself, believe in the necessity of animals in a
>sustainable
>farming system and see them as much a part of permaculture as plants.

This would be true even if they weren't domesticated(owls, bees etc. vs.
chickens, cows, etc) or being raised for human consumption, but it has no
bearing on whether eating a vegan diet is healthy or not for humans or the
planet!

Looking at human dentition versus other mammals, leads one to the
conclusion that humans are omnivores - they eat anything.  That and their
ingenuity are the reasons humans are all over the planet.  But their
primary food sources in most places have historically been vegetarian,
supplemented intermittently by available meat sources.  And over time,
surviving populations adapted and thrived with what was locally available.
From what I can surmise, is that there are those who do well with high meat
diets(Aleuts for example) and those who do well with low meat diets.  But
not everyone does as well with the same diet due to individual differences.


"Vegan vs meat eaters" has become a mantra for those who see veganism as a
solution to world hunger or other problems.  Seems to me it's not so black
and white.  More of an issue of distribution of wealth, centralization of
food production, overprocessing and probably a number of issues I'm totally
missing.  For the yuppies that Skye first mentioned, veganism is a fad and
an unsustainable life style.  They are a symptom of the larger problems
inherent in a global economic system.  Veganism in this context is a red
herring.


Hasta mañana,

John