Animal Husbandry is the New Vegetarian

From Lierre Keith's The Vegetarian Myth to Robert Lustig's Metabolical

In this video, I respond to Russell Brand's interview of chef Tom Kerridge, and talk about the value system that animal husbandry and vegetarians share. I reference Lierre Keith's The Vegetarian Myth and delve into regenerative ranching as the way to heal the soil and atmosphere in a way that's OPPOSITE of the Reset's goal of centralization. I look at democratizing food production so that everyone can afford real food and mention my former microcharity Food in the Hood.

The premise of the Third Paradigm is that we’re being presented with false dichotomies in order to divide us on things that don’t solve the problem. Third Paradigm uses those dichotomies as a single two-dimensional line and springs off of that line into a different dimension.

As ethical systems, the words vegetarian and carnivore both denote consumers, literally, what people put into their mouths. In this, they have much more in common than separates them. They assume a social system where other people feed us and we get to choose what of their products is worthy of us. They assume that individual monetary choices will add up to social change. These are supermarket activists, at the extreme end of it—not unethical, just what I’d call food preferences rather than food ethics.

Another continuum is consumer to producer. At the sainthood level of food producers are Gavin Mounsey (vegetarian), Guttermouth (carnivore) and William Hunter Duncan (omnivore?):

• Gavin’s recent post is a feast for the eyes, what I called a Gods-eye view of up-close and intimate new buds, which words can’t do justice but will do your heart good.

• Guttermouth is on pause from writing, I looked for the post of her chasing hogs down the freeway but didn’t find it. I might be the first person to nominate her for sainthood and she’ll never forgive me.

• William has just put out his fifth (and final?) crucible of transforming a barren field into a food mecca, and himself into a lean, not-mean, farming machine in the process.

I would suspect that these three have more in common with each other than any of them do with the supermarket version of their caloric intake. Inbetween these two extremes are any number of steps to get closer to your food production—more cooking, buying more direct, buying local and in-season, keeping a kitchen garden.

But I still don’t think this qualifies as ethics. I’m not sure I believe in ethics, much less food ethics. We are, I believe, in the maws of a man-made kraken, ready to chomp down on the world like a corn nut. If you need Hostess Ding-Dongs to get you through the day, go for it. Be kind to yourself.

And yet … I think there’s a synchronicity to what heals our bodies and spirits and what heals the world and our relationships. I taught my kids that no vegetable is inherently evil, only misunderstood. But maybe ‘nightshades’ live up to their name, as Dr. Gundry’s Plant Paradox claims. And perhaps my mom was ahead of her time, hand-peeling the tomatoes my dad grew by scraping them with a butter knife, so the skins fell off. A low-lectin pioneer, before the term.

And maybe Michael Cameron is on to something, who posted the first comment I got on this YT video, which I originally put out almost two years ago:

Michael Cameron 14 hours ago

I am in total shock that this video has so few viewers [36]. Your words on animal husbandry are inspirational. I used to think that being a vegetarian was a good/cool thing. I've been eating carnivore for only six months. During that time I have completely stopped my rapid inclination towards diabetes, obesity and just plain misery. I lost 45 pounds and have sort of plateaued on the weight loss but I feel so much better than when I was eating grains, fruits, and vegetables (and sugar). Modern cooking oils are poison for me.

Wanted to suggest a book if you haven't read it yet. It's "Metabolical" by Robert H. Lustig. I don't relate, in any way, to food the way I have all the rest of my life. I don't get hungry like in the past. It's a brand new joy I have found in eating very simply (nose-to-tail). Grocery shopping is a quick breeze, spending about half of what I spent before of time and money! A mostly carnivore diet makes the occasional fast so much easier than before. I'll never go back to carbohydrate binging. And I don't feel the need to eat nearly as frequently. It's been a blessing for me. I have to thank Dr. Ken Berry for the inspiration and guidance.

The book Metabolical has 1054 references that Lustig has sorted by chapters online, so you can look them up by page and it will link directly to the scientific article. In its emphasis on verification, it reminds me of RFK’s The Real Anthony Fauci.

But all this is a preface and not redundant with the video. Lierre Keith’s The Vegetarian Myth is one of the most powerful books I’ve read. As a vegan for 20 years, she has insight and compassion for the convictions that lead someone to make that commitment. She divides those reasons into four chapters: Moral Vegetarians, Political Vegetarians, Nutritional Vegetarians and To Save the World. And each of those reasons she gently but thoroughly debunks. She writes:

In his book Long Life, Honey in the Heart, Martin Pretchel writes of the Mayan people and their concept of kas-limaal, which translates roughly as “mutual indebtedness, mutual insparkedness.” “The knowledge that every animal, plant, person, wind, and season is indebted to the fruit of everything else is an adult knowledge. To get out of debt means you don’t want to be part of life, and you don’t want to grow into an adult,” one of the elders explains to Pretchel.

The only way out of the vegetarian myth is through the pursuit of kas-limaal, of adult knowledge. This is a concept we need, especially those of us who are impassioned by injustice. I know I needed it. In the narrative of my life, the first bite of meat after my twenty year hiatus marks the end of my youth, the moment when I assumed the responsibilities of adulthood. It was the moment I stopped fighting the basic algebra of embodiment: for someone to live, someone else has to die. In that acceptance, with all its suffering and sorrow, is the ability to choose a different way, a better way.

This strikes me as the heart of the economic myth also. We want to live in a house built by others, receive an education, food and services, but not ‘owe’ anything to anyone. The anonymous debts to banks, the corporate jobs are preferable because they leave us independent, ‘self’-sufficient. This is a conceit of youth. To become an adult is to be indebted and ‘insparked’ in ways that we can never repay … but can only pass on the gift with gratitude.

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In this follow-up video, Thomas Frank Misses the Point of Populism, I talk about the Grange, whose full name is the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry:

In Russell Brand's interview of Thomas, he quotes Steve Bannon that populism is the future, the only question is whether it's right- or left-wing. Thomas retorts that there is no right-wing populism, only left. I answer that if it's right OR left, it's not populism. In recent politics, I use the example of Ron Paul as more populist than Bernie Sanders. In the history of populism, I look at The Nonpartisan League in a book called Insurgent Democracy by Michael Lansing and how bipartisan politics gave money creation to the banks in Ellen Brown's Web of Debt. I end with the hope that we emulate the farmer Grange movement and come to agreement on policies that we support instead of parties.

and in this one, Who Stole Our Creativity? I look at a jigsaw puzzle of children's books from the late 1800's to early 1900's. The expectation is that young people can build, fix, make, cook, play, sew and think. There are adventures on the sea, on trains, and on horseback by moonlight—for girls and boys. I look at how these things have become expensive hobbies rather than capabilities of daily life. And I examine the spiritual aspect of whether we are God's creativity, not creation, and this is our function in life.