Eric Rubel is a well-read, book-smart farmer who grew up on a sheep
farm. His father was a soil scientist and together with his mother, the family farmed lambs. Rubel began his own career as
a nutritional consultant for farmers. His philosophy turns on the idea that you
have to balance soil to create healthy plant-life to keep livestock healthy
which keeps those who eat the livestock healthy. One of the largest influences
on his philosophy was a man who has been called the Isaac Newton of nutrition, Dr.Weston A. Price.
“Weston A. Price was actually a dentist of all things,”
Rubel says. “He had a practice in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. He actually had a
practice in Cleveland, OH. In his clients he saw a lot of problems with crowded
teeth, lots of cavities, narrow pallets, narrow dental arches, poor bone
structure within the face, and poor health over-all.”
“He started doing probably missionary work overseas in what
we would consider third world or developing countries. He thought they’d
probably need his help because they wouldn’t have toothbrushes, toothpaste, or
dentists.”
“What he discovered was that these people were eating their
traditional diets that they had grown up with probably for centuries. They had
no cavities, or few cavities, wide teeth, wide pallets, wide dental arches, overall
good health. So there wasn’t nearly the need for his services over there.”
Rubel explains that after years of researching primal diets
around the globe, Price became a nutritional missionary to modern people. He preached that humans could achieve far better health when
they consume nutrient-dense foods, and that one way to ensure nutrient-dense
meat is by raising livestock on healthy pastures.
Rubel says the cookbook Nurturing Traditions is an excellent
resource not only for understanding how to prepare these foods, but also to
understand some of the benefits of eating in the Weston A. Price philosophy.
On Rubel’s small farm operation, he grows
pasture-raised chickens, eggs, and Thanksgiving turkeys, grass-fed lamb and
beef, and all-natural pork. He likes to connect with his customers at farmers markets and elsewhere and
is always ready with information about the health benefits of eating grass-fed
and pasture-raised products.
“One of the biggest nutritional benefits is that you’ll have
higher omega-3s in their fat, and a much better ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s.
The typical diet of an American is usually about a 20 – 1 or 16 – 1 ratio of
omega-6s to omega-3s which is way too high. What you’re shooting for is
somewhere between a 4 – 1 ratio or 1 – 1 ratio.”
Both omega-3 and omega-6 are
types of essential fatty acids - meaning we cannot make them on our own and
have to obtain them in our diet. According to experts at the National
Institutes of Health, the common western dietary imbalance of the omega fatty
acids may explain the rise of such diseases as asthma, coronary heart disease,
many forms of cancer, autoimmunity, and neurodegenerative diseases, and also
may contribute to obesity, depression, dyslexia, hyperactivity, and even a tendency
toward violence.
Ruble explains that omega-3s
come from the leaves of green-growing grass which is why he raises his chickens
on pastures.
“I take them out to the pastures, to pasture-shelters,”
Rubel says. “It’s a floorless shelter that allows them to rest right on the
ground, scratch on the grass, scratch for bugs, eat grass, and they actually
get sunshine.”
“We move them every day. And the reason we do that is
because it will actually fertilize the ground. They’re hand fed, they’re hand
watered. It’s more labor-intensive but I find that it’s a labor of love because
I know that what I’m providing for my customers is a safe and much more
nutritious product and also, it’s much healthier for the animals themselves.”
Rubel says there are other health benefits derived from
pasture-raised animals including higher levels of cancer-preventing conjugated
linoleic acid or CLA, and higher levels of vitamin E. He points out that the
practice of feeding livestock grains and corns to fatten them up before they
are slaughtered depletes them of these nutritional benefits.
Rubel says many worry that producing meat and dairy products
in this way is cost-prohibitive for consumers, but he argues that sky-rocketing
medical costs of eating too much sugar other nutritionally-depleted food
sources aren’t often enough brought into the equation.