812-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 12, 2003
Author Touts Traditional Diets From Grassfed Livestock
KATRINA OBERHOLTZER
Special Correspondent
BIRD-IN-HAND (Lancaster
Co.) With 150 people register
ed and many more latecomers,
the meeting house at Amish
owned Miller’s Natural Foods
store was filled with people inter
ested in information and opinions
on why grass-fed meats and milk
may be healthier for both our
bodies and our farms.
Sally Fallon, president of
Weston A. Price Foundation and
author of “Nourishing Tradi
tions,” spoke on what she sees as
a possible viable niche for the
small family-owned farm.
While making clear she had no
experience as a farmer, she out
lined the advantages of grass-fed
animal products and how these
products could vitalize the small
farm.
Fallon uses the work of Dr.
Weston A. Price, a dentist who in
the 1950 s began a 10-year study
on the diets of tribes and villages
isolated from Western processed
foods and having superior health
and teeth.
After identifying various pri
mative people groups with “per
fect” teeth, Price made the obser
vation that most of these peoples
had wide facial bones, well
formed teeth and few cavities de
spite the lack of daily brushing.
After identifying various pri
mative people groups world-wide
with exemplary health, Price
then compared the traditional
diets in order to find commonali
ties.
He made note that these pri
mative diets contained four times
the calcium and other minerals
and 10 times the fat-soluble vita
mins compared to the typical
American diet of his day.
Lycoming County Names Dairy Royalty
WILLIAMSPORT (Lycoming
Co.) On Saturday June 7, Re
gina Steppe, Vanessa Greider,
and Brittany Swisher competed
for the title of Lycoming County
Dairy Princess. After a long day
of interviews, speech presenta
tions, skits, and impromptu ques
tions, Regina Steppe was
crowned 2003-2004 Lycoming
County Dairy Princess.
Vanessa Greider and Brittany
Swisher were crowned 2003-2004
Lycoming County Alternate
Dairy Princesses.
Regina is the 16-year-old
daughter of James and Deborah
Steppe of South Williamsport.
In the fall she will be entering
eleventh grade at Jersey Shore
Area Senior High School. She is
the Bth child out of nine. She has
four brothers and four sisters.
Regina is a statistician for the
boy’s track team. She was a
From left is Laura Shutts, dairy maid; Colleen Lovell,
dairy maid; Kellyn Lovell, dairy maid; Sara Ulrich, dairy
maid; Brittany Swisher, alternate dairy princess; Regina
Steppe, Lycoming County Dairy Princess; Jessica Steppe,
2002-2003 Lycoming County Dairy Princess; Vanessa
Greider, alternate dairy princess; Darsy McClain, dairy
maid; Ashley Derr, dairy miss; and Sherilynn Lovell, dairy
miss.
Sally Fallon
On later trips, Price also noted
that once these same groups were
introduced to processed foods,
the first generation offspring had
more narrow faces, crowded
teeth, and the tendancy for cavi
ties.
At a time when dentists were
not available, these dental prob
lems caused great suffering in
communities.
Fallon calls these processed
foods “the displacing foods of
modern commerce,” and believes
Americans are experiencing simi
lar health problems as those iden
tified by Price.
She emphasized that the
“trend toward degenerative bone
structure is reversible.”
Traditionally, these primitive
groups had “sacred foods” that
were valued in the community
for their life-giving force.
These included liver, eggs,
organ meat, and fish eggs. Fallon
gives the example of nursing
mothers in China eating up to 10
eggs per day, Alaskans eating
bear fat for fertility, and African
Dairy Maid for two years. She
works on her family’s farm,
Pleasant Hill Hay and Dairy
Farms.
Regina performed a skit for a
middle school audience. She
played the role of a nurse who
has a patient with osteoporosis.
She informed the audience about
the Real Seal, osteoporosis, and
lactose intolerance.
Alternate Vanessa Greider is
the 17-year-old daughter of Jeff
and Donna Greider of Linden. In
the fall she will be entering twelth
grade at Jersey Shore Area Sen
ior High School. She has two sis
ters and one brother.
Vanessa was a dairy maid for
six years. She is involved in
school musicals, talent shows,
and SADD. She works on Dotter
Farms in the summer.
Vanessa performed a skit for
preschool age children. She was a
athletes drinking pure cream.
Fallon believes that our own
sacred food should be butter,
cream, and cheese made from
cows on early spring grass.
Since most American children
cannot be persuaded to eat the
organ meat and other delicacies
many of these primitive cultures
added to their diets, Fallon be
lieves grassfed milk products are
the perfect source for these
health-promoting nutrients.
Fallon also believes that “most
(American) people today are not
satisfied by what they eat.”
According to Fallon, grass-fed
products, and especially raw
milk, contain nutrients missing in
products from confinement live
stock operations but essential for
our health.
These nutrients include congu
lated linoleic acid (CLA), Activa
tor X, and increased vitamins A
and D.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid
(CLA), known as a cancer pro
tectant, promotes lean bodies, in
creases breast milk, and has
many other benefits. According
to Fallon, CLA requires grass for
production, and is not found in
grainfed meats and milks.
Activator X is a lesser-known
substance said to protect against
heart disease. It is a catalyst
which, like vitamins A and D,
helps the body absorb and utilize
minerals. It is found in the organ
meats of grazing animals and
some seafood.
According to Fallon, deep yel
low butter from cows eating acti
vely growing grass in the spring
and fall seasons can be an espe
cially rich source of Activator X.
Increased vitamins A and D.
Fallon points out that milk from
cows not on pasture contains
dairy fairy. She informed the au
dience of the qualities of milk,
recommended daily servings, and
where milk comes from.
Alternate Brittany Swisher is
the 17-year-old daughter of Mel
vin and Marylee Swisher of Unit
yville. In the fall she will be en
tering twelth grade at
Hughesville High School. She has
two sisters and one brother.
Brittany is involved in FBLA
and Student Council. She works
on her family’s farm, Swish-
Haven Farm.
Brittany performed a skit for a
school audience. She informed
them about the nine essential nu
trients found in milk. She demon
strated how to make a strawberry
smoothie.
Before the ceremonies each
contestant had an interview with
the judges and presented an in
formational speech. Steppe pres
ented a speech on the changes of
dairy farming over time. Greider
presented a speech on Calcium
awareness. Lastly, Swisher pres
ented a speech on Milk Protein
Concentrates.
As the dairy maids were intro
duced and crowned by the out
going dairy princess, Jessica
Steppe, they gave a small speech
about themselves.
They are Kellyn Lovell, and
Colleen Lovell, daughters of
Scott and Rhonda Lovell, Linden;
Darsy McClain, daughter of
Scott and Diane McClain, Cogan
Station; Laura Shutts, daughter
of David and Becky Shutts, Lin
den; and Sara Ulrich, daughter of
Charles and Suzette Ulrich, Al
lenwood.
The newly crowned dairy
misses were Ashley Derr, daugh-
much less vitamin A and D than
that from cows on freshly grow
ing grass.
According to Fallon, what is
often labeled vitamin A in plant
products is actually betacarotine,
a substance that needs to be con
verted into useable vitamin A by
our bodies.
While healthy adult bodies can
convert betacarotine, Fallon
warns that babies, children, dia
betics, and older persons may
have difficulty. She emphasizes
that cows complete the process
for us.
Fallon also warns that pesti
cides interfere with vitamin A
and those exposed to pesticides
need extra vitamin A.
Fallon does not avocate the
lowfat diets of most programs.
‘To get the benefits of grassfed
(products), you have to eat the
fat,” Fallon said. She suggested
the website http://
wwwrealmilk.com for more info
comparing types of milks.
Fallon believes that the ideal
small farm would be a pasture
based program capitalizing on
the heath-giving benefits of pas
tured products. She believes
cream and products made from
cream would make the cow the
primary cash animal of the farm.
From this she recommends
making butter and cheese. The
farmers could make use of the
byproduct, whey, as the ideal
food for growing hogs and poul
try.
She visualizes farmers produc
ing as many valued-added prod
ucts as possible, mentioning
farms that were now selling
chicken broth at $l6 per quart.
While she admits value-added
products might be labor intensive
for one family, she suggests farms
From left is Brittany Swisher, alternate dairy princess;
Regina Steppe, dairy princess, and Vanessa Greider, al
ternate dairy princess.
ter of Ernest and Wanda Derr; temate Dairy Princess.
and Sherilyn Lovell, daughter of Jessica Steppe, the 2002-2003
Scott and Rhonda Lovell. Lycoming County Dairy Prin-
After the princess contestants cess, presented a farewell speech,
performed their skits, they an- She thanked everyone for mak
swered and impromptu question ing this year a success,
presented to them by the mistress The judges for the evening
of ceremonies, Sara Jennings, were David Morrow, Janet Rey
-2001-2002 Pennsylvania State Al- nolds, and Lynn Morrow.
might have several families work
ing together.
Fallon added that pasture
based operations eliminate some
of the extra expenses of conven
tional farming. She also com
pared the lifespan of dairy cows
on the two programs noting that
pastured cows tend to have long
er productive lives.
According to Fallon, some
states are now getting $5O per
hundredweight for pastured
milk. She advocated selling di
rectly to the public whenever pos
sible. States do have different
regulations on selling raw milk,
but at this time there are no regu
lations on private sales of raw
milk in Pennsylvania.
Although Fallon promotes ani
mal-based diets, she jokingly told
the audience that vegetarians can
find good health from their diets
“if they drink good quality milk
and eat insects.”
She added that pastured eggs
will provide the same nutrition
insects provided to those primi
tive vegetable-based diets.
Following Fallon’s presenta
tion a panel of local farmers
using a pasture-based approach
answered questions from the au
dience. Roman Stoltzfoos and
Amish farmers John Esh, Leroy
Miller, and Jake Zook fielded
questions directly related to
farming.
Sally Fallon was available to
answer questions related to the
nutrition of grassfed products.
Geoffrey Morell, a former New
Zealand farmer using a pasture
based approach, added an inter
national perspective. Morell is the
secretary of the Weston A Price
Foundation.
For more information, visit
www.westonaprice.org.