Sustainable Small Scale Farming and the Four Hour Chef!

There is a new book in town: The Four Hour Chef, by Tim Ferriss.

Check out the trailer for the book:













Tim is the author of The Four Hour Body, and The Four Hour Workweek.  Both books are well worth reading, just for an alternative view on nutrition and exercise (the first book), and on your work life (the second).  He researches everything to the max, and comes away with interesting insights, to say the least!  (Some of his "experiments" are downright weird, but hey- that's just 60 year old me talking!).

He is basically a Paleo diet advocate, but he does include things such as a "cheat day", where he consumes multiple pastries, and also allows legumes, i.e. beans as "slow carbs", meaning they take a lot of time to digest.  He can get away with such licenses, since he is:

#1. Young
#2.  Eats a basically paleo type of diet, most of the time

He has the idea that anyone can master just about anything, given 6 months of "practice".

This is his idea that I really like, and I think he is on to something!  Hence- The Four Hour Chef as a means to master cooking skills!  I like that...

Here is a quote from the intro to his book, which I find compelling, and in line with my own thinking about sustainable farming:


"Here are a few of my notes, from multiple sources:

• In the U.S., the last generation of career farmers is retiring. Specifically, more than 50% are set to retire in the next 10 years. Their farmland will be up for grabs. Will it go to an industrial agro-corp like Monsanto, and therefore most likely lead to monocrops (wheat, corn, soy, etc.) that decimate ecosystems? Will it be strip malls? Or might it become a collection of smaller food producers? The last option is the only one that’s environmentally sustainable. It’s also the tastiest. As Michael Pollan would say: how you vote three times a day (with the meals you eat) will determine the outcome.

• Going small can amount to big economic stimulus. Let’s look at the economic argument for shifting from a few huge producers to many smaller producers: by diversifying crops beyond corn and soybeans in just six agricultural states, the net economic gain would be $882 million in sales and 9,300 jobs, according to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.

• Environmental impact? Converting the U.S.’s 160 million corn and soybean acres to organic production would sequester enough carbon to satisfy 73% of the Kyoto targets for CO reduction in the U.S.

In other words, the fun you have in this book will do a lot of good beyond you and your family. In many ways, our eating behavior in the next few years will decide the future of the entire country.

The magic number and my target is 20 million people. It is the tipping point: 20 million people can create a supertrend.

To dodge the submerged iceberg of industrial-scale food production and its side effects, to alter the course of this country and reinvigorate the economy, all I need to do is make you more interested in food. In total, we need to make 20 million people more aware of eating.

This will lead to changes, starting with breakfast. Then the snowball of consonant decisions takes care of the rest.

Stranger things have happened."

Go Tim Ferriss!!

J

Buy your Paleo food Locally Part 2

OK, I was all excited: I went to the processor of many of the eatwild.com farms that had grass fed beef here in my area of Southwestern Wisconsin!  I thought-

"This is so cool!  ALL of these family farms, who have their grass fed, wholesome beef and other meats processed in this one facility will now be available to me!  One stop shopping!!"

I asked the counterman about grass fed beef...

"No- we do process a lot of family farms that do that, but here we only sell

HIGH GRADE, GRAIN FED BEEF!"

This was a nice meat market, but wouldn't you think the guy would think about all the grass fed beef they were processing, and think that there might be a market for it in his own store?

Disappointing, but it pointed out one thing to me: 

You really need to connect with a FARMER who does things the way you want!

The convenient, modern, one-stop-shopping route that was the be-all-end-all of the 1960's better living through chemistry and industrialization has FAILED!  And, by it's very nature, it will continue to fail; we need to get back to buying local produce, in particular meats that we know that the farmer or rancher involved is trustworthy and honest.  Strong ETHICS are important in ALL endeavors!

We did check out a really nice GOLF COURSE in Winona, Minnesota, just up the river from us, The Bridges, that has a restaurant: Signatures that features local meats, and free range chicken dishes- excellent- if you are traveling the "River Road", and are in Winona, check this place out!

Paleo approved!

 But then, on the way home we spied this BUS next to us on the highway:

 
A wonderful idea: Tapestry, an Enchanted Garden
"Healthy vegetables to color your life"


But check out the dilapidated bus, and the broken window!
This looks like a hippie dream gone wrong!  Kind of scary, really...

Here is another view of the Winona golf course- very Paleo-esque, easy to imagine Indian/paleolithic peoples running around in this environment, (sans chairs), they would just do the Asian squat-

And so, I thought I would leave you with a Utopian vision of what a nice golf course and Eden-like landscaping can do-

Food for the Paleo-nativist soul- Ideal landscape, sunshine, healthy activity (golf) - with real foods!

I hope you have days such as this, for a long time to come!  Life is really simple, if you think about it.