Howdy, everybody!
The inspiration of this post started with my creation of a document (a Portuguese translation is also available) based on the presentation I gave at the IV International Symposium on Integrated Crop-livestock Systems in Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, November 7 – 10, 2023. Initially I was planning on that my inaugural post covering my entire presentation. I changed my mind - partly ‘cause it might be too long a post but mostly ‘cause it would take a while and distract me from some other projects that I ought to be working on…
Disclosures
For those who haven’t met Don Pedro, Sodfather of the Ruminati, permit me to introduce myself (here’s a short bio).
I’m an advocate for Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction and for ruminant animal agriculture.
I’ve worked in forage agriculture for most of my adult life.
I’m a member of numerous scientific societies related to agronomy, forage and rangeland agriculture, and metabolic health.
I serve several national and international organizations.
And I’m an omnivore. I attended one international conference where people declared their dietary preferences. Perhaps we should start doing that, too, since public and policy conversations related to ruminant animal agriculture and dietary choices are so heavily influenced by personal beliefs.
The origins of ‘Grass Based Health’
As an agronomist, I was trained in the sciences relating to healthy soil and healthy plants.
Because of my animal nutrition training, I am familiar with the sciences relating to animal health.
Because of my personal health experience over since 2007, I've learned a great deal about human nutrition and health. Back then I was a 51-year-old, balding, obese, prediabetic.1 Today, thanks to Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction2 I’m just balding… My metabolic health has been restored thanks to this lifestyle intervention.
Of course, there are interactions between these four components - soil, plant, animal, people. I call this Grass Based Health. This is a multi-disciplinary approach to addressing the significant challenges humanity faces as we move towards mid-century.
Building bridges
I’ve become a bridge builder – someone who connects the dots and strives to span the gaps between disciplines. Here’s an example that happened during my recent trip to Brazil
Thanks to social media I was introduced to Dr. Jose C. Souto, a physician from Porto Alegre. We met in person a few years ago at a metabolic health conference in San Diego, California. He’s written a book3 that’s a best-seller in Brazil. One of many highlights of my visit was introducing a young grassland agriculture colleague to him. Dr. Souto kindly signed a copy of his book for her and provided copies for me to give to other colleagues at the symposium. I look forward to introducing more of my crop-livestock systems colleagues to Dr. Souto.
Each of us can become more familiar with the topic of metabolic health, the critical function of proper nutrition, and how our work in ruminant animal agriculture systems will enable improved health and greater flourishing for all humanity.
Regenerating public health
I’ve been given the opportunity to speak to both agricultural and non-agricultural audiences in a number of countries. Many of these have been posted on YouTube along with a number of podcasts.
I promote the idea of regenerating public health. We are experiencing a pandemic of metabolic illness. By one estimate4, only 7% of adult Americans have optimal cardiometabolic health. Sick is now the statistical norm in the United States. But this is a global phenomenon. Eighty percent of people who have these chronic (i.e. metabolic) malnutrition-related diseases live in low- and middle-income countries.
My presentation was not the time for an in-depth discussion of this topic, but I hoped to give a sufficient introduction to successfully argue that:
Human flourishing must be based upon proper nutrition.
That nutrition requires animal source foods.
Ruminants will be a significant source of those foods.
Integrated Cropping-livestock Systems (ICLS) will be critical to providing the higher-quality diet humanity requires.
My plan is to present the remainder of this presentations in a series topic-sized pieces. Then I can do the same with other presentations I’ve given, with the occasional podcast or other topic mixed in. Let’s see how successful I am.
Thanks for joining the Ruminati Herd!
Echouffo-Tcheugui, J.B., Selvin, E., 2021. Prediabetes and What It Means: The Epidemiological Evidence. Annu. Rev. Public Health. 42(1), 59-77. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-090419-102644.
https://thesmhp.org/clinical-guidelines/
Souto, J.C., 2023. Uma dieta além da moda: Uma abordagem científica para a perda de peso e a manutenção da saúde. WMF Martins Fontes.
O’Hearn, M., Lauren, B.N., Wong, J.B., Kim, D.D., Mozaffarian, D., 2022. Trends and disparities in cardiometabolic health among US adults, 1999-2018. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 80(2), 138-151. https://www.jacc.org/doi/abs/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.04.046