This is the second in a series of three articles written by our Executive Board Member, Phyllis Tichinin.
Sacred Cows of Agriculture
by Phyllis Tichinin from True Health NZ
In my first article I discussed the connection between soil qualities, flavour and nutrition in our food. I defended cows as valuable contributors to healthy farming. Here I talk some more about those actual cows but more about our mental sacred cows.
When you hear the word ‘sacred cows’ do you tend to think of Hindu religious beliefs about the sanctity of bovines? On an ecosystem level I do think that bovine ruminants play such an important role in grassland ecosystem regeneration that we ought to view them as sacrosanct or at least very useful and worthy of our respect and care. After all ruminants are a pivotal factor in creation of the world’s deepest and richest soils – the Serengeti and Great Plains of the Midwest.
But the ‘sacred cows’ I’m talking about here are our entrenched and nearly faith-based perspectives on agriculture as a chemical system. We farmers have some long standing beliefs that are not based on present day science. This worldview, or paradigm, is a major source of our ill health and many of our environmental problems. Erosion, water pollution, species die off, toxic blooms, hormone imbalances, inflammatory disorders, nutritional deficiencies and cancer can all be traced back to our soils and how we conduct agriculture…
To read the rest of the article, follow the link to PURE ADVANTAGE
Cover Photo Credit: ODPG