If a farm had a mission statement....

When the government wanted to put a pipeline through the Indian Reservation, the elders would not allow it, they argued anything you do now affects the next seven generations. My grandpa was born in 1896, about 125 years ago. My genetic makeup is different from my brother and my sister, maybe some similar features, but also some completely different ones from the same set of parents. All seemingly unrelated observations, unless you are trying to figure out how and why thing affect you. Each person has a unique genetic makeup, even twins have different fingerprints. When doctors, dietitians, supplement makers, and friends pass along advice as to what helped them, don’t be surprised when your individual set of body functions rejects the assistance. We need some way to monitor the things as they affect us. Pay attention to how air, weather, food and drink, sleep, exercise, and all the other things

make you feel right now and latter. We alone are the preservers of our own health.

If you eat some grass-fed beef and a day later you have an unexpected burst of energy or for a few moments you feel extra strength, pay attention to what you have done. If you have eaten lots of highly processed foods and you feel lethargic, pay attention to that. It is possible our genetic makeup predisposes us to eat the diet of our ancestor. Each one of our past seven generations of ancestors had inputs from their ancestors. We are the result of a thousand years of breeding. Just because you cannot

remember how thing were in the past, does not mean these thing did not leave an indelible mark to your genetic makeup and what you need to get along well.

The modern food delivery system has only been around for a hundred and some years. Most of our ancestors ate every day without Walmart, Quick Stop, or Donut Shops. They ate what was outside, what they grew, what they foraged, and what was put up. No electric, no automobile, no refrigeration, no imported fruit from China.

Darwin proposed that evolution is natural selection. Because resources are limited in nature, organisms with heritable traits that favor survival and reproduction will tend to leave more offspring, causing the traits to increase in frequency over generations. Hopefully for the past thousand years we have gotten better. Now in the last 2 or 3 generations, we have completely changed the food source. All the new

diet related disease show how the Darwin Theory is not favoring those who cannot assimilate the new diet. Some of us may need to return to the ancient food sources to satisfy our ancient heritable traits. Unique gene expression may favor wild foods and the old ways for some of us. If the peasants of old brought in and prepared the roasted leg of beef and roasted root vegetables for the king, the peasants would have taken home the leftover bones and trimmed off vegetable tops and bottoms to stew and

feed their families. My old relatives would have eaten more like the peasants than the King.

I wonder what would happen if as an experiment we took a mammal, perhaps a ground squirrel, and in a generation or two, moved it out of the hole in the ground into an air conditioned and heated home, with a proper sewer system, flew in food from all over the world that had not been part of its’ ancestors diet, genetically altered and overly processed that food add preservatives and fake coloring so it is ready

to eat unrestricted all of the time, change the daylight hours every day with unnatural light, and removed access to the micro-organisms outside, suggested no need for exercise, instead watch a box of colored lights to past the time. Do we think their body and the offspring would develop new health issues, while they adapt to this new better life? What would come of the hibernation in winter? Would it need extra weight for the winter? Would there be new baby squirrel diseases? I believe some would

flourish while some would degrade, some would adapt, and some would be sick.

At our place it is our mission to use the regenerative farming methods to produce the best beef possible. Trying to grow our own biological soil amendments instead of chemical fertilizers. Using Food grade minerals supplements from natural sources. Pasture rotation to improve the grass. Grass-fed adaptive genetics to make the best use of all of this. Trying to produce the most nutrient dense beef possible.

So is it certified organic? No, we have never applied for the designation, but agree with most of the practices. Is it Grass-fed, well all cattle eat grass, so yes they are grass-fed but again we have not requested to be certified. Is it Grass-finished? We try to feed grass, exclusively, but have found that the cattle become harder to “call up”. We do furnish a little grain to keep them coming to us when we call, and we like to

give them a little when the winter temperatures drop below zero for a little extra energy. In summary the animals evolve over generations to adapt to their surroundings and food sources. In humans the food sourcing system has completely changed in the last 100 years, only allowing a few generations to adapt. Our bodies are still designed to live in the old days, and are likely evolving as quickly as possible.