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
From what I understand, the high prices in CA are a result of the costs of the rigorous regulations. If it’s any consolation, prices aren’t as high in other parts of the country. Perhaps in this case, there are pros and cons of being legal and available commercially. Being illegal and unavailable is not the answer, either. Let’s hope for a happy medium someday for everyone (like they have in many parts of Europe, where the governments support traditional food and endorse raw milk vending machines!).
Hi Yvonne, I understand Real Food is much more expensive and it can be a real wake up call when transitioning from the cheap, processed foods that most people are used to. Food is always cheaper than drugs, though. I personally would turn off my cable and go from 2 cars to 1 car if that were the only way to afford the quality food required for good health. There is no other choice: choose quality food or choose drugs (in the long run). Its a sad fact, but entirely true.
I totally agree with the “turn off cable…” — my husband was unemployed for 11 months and we were on a very tight budget but continuing with raw milk and farm-fresh eggs was a top priority. It was a lot cheaper than Cobra insurance!!
Love your blog, Sarah. Thanks for all of the great information!!
I am all for real food, but who can afford raw milk? I live in southern California and the only place I can find it is a health food store 15 miles away who sells it for $16 a gallon! Is this the going rate? Butter is $12 a pound and cheese is $15 a pound!
I guess you have to be fairly well off to afford good health.
Yvonne,
I am in Minnesota and have both cows and goats and sell dairy shares. You may be able to find someone who will sell you milk off the farm or buy a dairy share. Start with craigslist, they have many farmers on there who will be delighted to sell some products! Also, contact a local extension office or 4-H group. They often can help find what you are looking for.
One of the “problems” with milk or any of the products on store shelves is the packaging and distribution of the product. The canning jars I use to put my mik into are about $1.50 each and that doesn’t include my time to buy them, wash them, sanitize them, etc. And we have not even fed the animals yet!
I do think the prices you are quoting are a bit high. I sell my milk off the farm for $5-$6 per gallon, I have not priced butter and other items yet but I want to make the food I raise and grow affordable for everyone–not just the elite.
You may also check to find a farm that is not certified organic. I can not afford to be USDA organic nor do I want to! However, the way my plants and animals are raised qualify as organic and I don’t use the fertilizers/chemicals/etc. that are approved by USDA. There are MANY like me out there.
Also, check out certified naturally grown producers. It has the same “rules” as organic but is affordable, only $50 to apply for certification with the same criteria as USDA organic. They have a list of farmers on their website as well. http://www.naturallygrown.org/
Good luck! I would help you more but I am in Minnesota so a bit far!
Tracy
In the four years since I transitioned to real food, at my new doctor’s suggestion, and began to really care about food, carefully sourced and traditionally prepared, I’ve noticed a cascade of benefits to my and my family’s health. I read Dr Price’s Nutrition and Physical Degeneration over the summer (one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read, with limitless implications and ramifications), and re-read Nourishing Traditions, along with many related books and articles, and as I did so I felt such wonder, amazement and gratitude at the seemingly super-human efforts of Dr Price, Dr Enig, Sally Fallon, and the heroic nature of their herculean efforts. Swimming upstream against an endless tide of industry-driven and government-endorsed myths and fallacies, it sometimes seems an impossibly difficult quest. However, it was like a shot in the arm to attend the WAPF conference and to be among 1500 like-minded people all focused on creating a tipping point of enlightened awareness and positive change. Bring on the followers and the tipping point!
I think we are past the tipping point and what we are watching is the collapse. Everything is breaking down; ways that used to work aren’t anymore. I see it as we are being reduced to our core selves, like the draining of a pond. What is left? Depends on how you have lived your life, what choices you have made, how willing are you to own what you see, and to make necessary changes to co-create a better world.
I love your blog, Sarah, and am learning a lot. I’m moving from NYC to FL to live with my 77-year-old mother who – praise the Lord!!! – is ready to make serious changes in her life. Her ways haven’t worked; what I’ve suggested to her over the years – including keeping her informed about the coming global economic collapse that I first realized was happening in 2001 – has turned out to be accurate. She is coming to see how bright the future is as things get shaken up, and we can finally bring forward positive, life-affirming changes.
And it starts with food. Who isn’t interested in food and eating well?
Best to you, Sarah,
Leslie
Hi Emily, so great to “see” you online! That was a wonderful Sunday brunch at the Conference, wasn’t it? I really liked the lamb sausage – heaven! My only disappointment was that I couldn’t eat more! LOL
In 2000 I was shopping for the least expensive gallon of milk, happily buying processed foods for the cheapest price. Meals in a bag were the greatest thing since sliced bread!
Today I trek up to a farm for raw goat’s milk every week, luckily I live in a state that allows on-farm raw milk sales. I bought extra produce at the farmers market this summer and have a small collection of dried and frozen veggies in my kitchen. I buy our meat from a butcher shop that accepts animals from a 15-mile radius only.
We aren’t all organic or anything, but I do know where a good portion of our food comes from (Paul grew the potatoes, Jerry cut the stew beef, Sue milked the goats), and that makes me feel better about our diets.
So, tipping point? I don’t know if we’ve reached that but armed raids on dairies seems like something’s working if they are that afraid of our challenges to the corporate food network.
So YES! I am a proud follower.
Hi Sarah,
I too was at the conference (think we had lunch Sunday) and have shared that story many times as well. The conference was rejuvinated my motivation to work for change. I do think that we are close the tipping point not just on food but so many other aspects of society. We just need to work for that change for it shall never be handed to us, whether it is as a leader, follower #1, #2, #421….Thank you for being one of our ralliers!
Emily
Wow this is an excellent post! I have been tweeting it. I love the video too, I especially appreciate when the narrator says Leadership is over-glorified. So true! Our culture has such a cult of personality it ends up crippling us! Thanks again for the inspiration.
Great post Sara – the video was hilarious!