I first saw Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, speak in person back in 2003. Sally gives a “can’t leave your seat” seminar on Traditional Diets that takes her an entire day to run through. I remember during that seminar that Sally said it would take less than 10% and perhaps as little as 2% of people to stop buying processed store milk and switch to fresh milk from small, local, family farms to bring down Big Dairy’s death grip on this industry. Big Dairy is evidently highly leveraged and it would only take a small drop in demand to bring the whole house of cards tumbling down.
Are we any nearer to this Tipping Point at the end of 2010 than we were back in 2003?
Sally addressed this question in her remarks during the banquet at the Wise Traditions Conference last month in Philadelphia. If you haven’t been to one of these yet, by the way, you have to go next year in Dallas! Go – if only for the FOOD!
To illustrate the point that we may be closer to the Tipping Point than any of us realize, Sally told a story about a young Mother who was unable to breastfeed her child. The child was not gaining weight on commercial formula and was having some very serious failure to thrive issues. Desperate, the Mother started making the Homemade Milk Based Formula for her baby.
The Mother was beside herself with delight to see that the baby started to thrive and gain weight on the Homemade Formula. We Moms love to share good news with those around us, don’t we? But we have to sometimes be careful sharing it with those folks whose brains are hopelessly “in the box” and overly “left brained” if you know what I mean!
This Mother sincerely, albeit naively, shared the secret to her baby’s miraculous weight gain and new found health with her Pediatrician!
Oops. Not good.
The Pediatrician promptly called Child Protective Services.
When the Child Protective Services agent showed up at this Mother’s home for an evaluation, the Mother showed her exactly how she was making the formula and explained how it was helping her baby gain weight and thrive at long last.
Shockingly, the Child Protective Services agent then told this Mother that she didn’t have any problem with the homemade formula because she herself was making it for her own baby!
At that point, of course, the entire ballroom erupted into cheers and clapping!
Perhaps we are nearer to the Tipping Point than we know, my friends! Insisting on quality food from small, local family farms is not so “out there” anymore. It is the choice that smart people are making from all walks of life. It is a decision based on self preservation and the knowledge that eating the highly processed, sterilized, irradiated, foods that the government seems to be forcing upon us will only lead to a life dependent on pharmaceuticals and devoid of much of the spark of life.
How to Start a Movement
My roomie at the Wise Traditions Conference was none other than Ann Marie Michaels of the Cheeseslave blog. She showed the video below during her panel talk on Social Media and Effective Food Activism.
I simply love this 2 minute video and find it highly inspiring. It shows how to start a Movement in a highly entertaining way. The Movement in North America back to Traditional Foods is well on its way and we may be closer to The Big Mo (Momentum, aka The Tipping Point) than we think!
The message to me from this video is don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Be a great follower and that in and of itself is highly effective leadership and will provide fuel to a Movement more than anything else!
What are your thoughts and stories? Are we close to the Tipping Point?
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
Elaine, you are right – personal testimony from people you know and trust is more powerful than even conventional news sources anymore for many people. The news seems to be so slanted in favor of the companies whose advertising dollars support the networks and news outlets that folks are becoming increasingly distrustful of how their opinions are being formed. Reading both sides of the story with an open mind is the only way to go it seems.
Sorry I’m posting again – guess I’m feeling chatty tonight 🙂 … I just had to add my personal experience. Two or three years ago when we first started with raw milk we hosted dinner for several neighbors. I offered the raw milk to them for their children and they both declined – feeling that it was “too risky”. Now – one of those neighbors is drinking the good stuff right along with us and has converted her mother, too! She also is eating pastured meat and laughing at how far she has come. The other neighbor has moved but is trying to get into our co-op to buy the milk for her family. They tease me because more than half of my sentences start with, “I recently read on a blog…” but they are listening!! Word of mouth and personal testimony are powerful influences.
Now we need to get the cows bred to produce strictly A2 milk! I will drink raw goat’s milk/dairy until that happens.
Tina
Yes, I still need to be careful as for telling people we drink raw milk. This is changing though – the raw milk wagon that comes to our town is getting very popular through word of mouth, people do want real food!!!!
The tipping point is happening, slowly but surely. There wouldn’t be so much focus on the farm raids, GMO’s, and the recent Food Bill if there wasn’t a sign of change.
Thanks! Some days I feel like the “loan nut.” And I, like the mother who made the formula, have learned that at some point it’s better to keep ones mouth shut and wait for the right time to share knowledge. I am encouraged by this post and sincerely hope that more Americans wake up to what we big brother is feeding us and that the tipping point comes soon!
Even my “mainstream” friends are getting into the movement. They’re dissatisfied and disgusted and really questioning our food supply. We’re close. Give it another year or so and we’ll be there.
I live in Alaska where food prices in general are ridiculously high, so switching to local, traditional foods means paying even MORE when our food budget was already over twice what it was when we were going to school in Idaho. For us, since we have a very limited budget, I am just choosing for right now a few things that I’m willing to spend extra money on to get good quality (like fresh goat’s milk, local eggs, kerrygold butter, etc.) so we’re getting some really good nutrients from those, and then I have to be more relaxed with other things. But it makes me feel a little better if we’re at least getting some good quality dairy and fats, and hopefully later we can afford other things as well. But I definitely hear when I talk to various people that the real food movement is exploding! Hope it keeps up!