Where I live on Vancouver Island, in the temperate northwest of North America, the Coast Salish people were very healthy. In the early 20th century an American dentist named Weston Price came here to study the indigenous people and their health on a traditional diet. In all of the skulls he examined pre-dating European contact (and civilized foods), incidences of tooth decay were extremely rare to nonexistent. Their diet gave their bodies exactly what they needed to perform complex functions like the re-mineralization of dental enamel (anyone who is vegan very long can appreciate this).
What did they eat? Fish, grease (whale, fish, bear, seal etc.), sea mammals, shellfish, berries, deer and a variety of seasonal plant foods (salmonberry shoots, pacific silverweed rhizomes, etc.). They were extremely healthy people, prizing grease, guts and flesh as their most vital foods. The inhabitants of the North American plains had pemmican as their staple food — dried, pounded bison meat formed into balls with highly saturated animal fat from rendered marrow or intestinal fat — exactly what politically correct nutrition tells us to avoid. And yet these people had no heart disease, tooth decay, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis or obesity.
At this point people say: "But they lived differently! They were more physically active." No doubt, they had to bust their asses sometimes, but what about those month-long feasts in the longhouse? I am pretty positive they did their fair share of just sitting around and feasting, perhaps more than some of us.
It is common knowledge among anthropologists that hunter-gatherers work much less than farmers. It is common knowledge, too, that they are healthier than farmers and that they do not destroy their land bases. Industrialized farming, of course, requires almost no direct human contact with the land and little labor, but we still find all sorts of things to busy our bodies.
Traditional Cultures Were Omnivorous
Traditional human cultures across the world have been omnivorous; there are no examples of an indigenous vegan society. None. When Dr. Price traveled to indigenous cultures across the planet, he found they all prized animal organs and animal fats as their most nourishing, life-giving foods. Even in warm climates, animal foods are loved and celebrated by indigenous people as essential to life.
Humans can thrive on a diet of raw, unadulterated animal foods (meat, fat, organs), but many plant foods contain anti-nutrients (oxalic acid in greens, phytic acid in grains/seeds) or are simply indigestible without some kind of adulteration (cooking, fermenting, etc.).
Cultures that come closest to being total raw foodists also seem to have the highest concentration of animal foods (I am thinking of the Inuit). The reverse is true for those with more of a focus on plant foods (e.g., China). We are biologically omnivores. Sorry, it's pretty much that straightforward. Humans thrive with plant and animal foods, that is what we have evolved to eat and need. There are examples of cultures that existed for thousands of years consuming almost no plant foods and thriving; there aren't any examples of the reverse. In agricultural communities where animal foods are scarce, they have traditionally been coveted and treasured, with every edible part of a creature being used for nourishment.
Ethics: Harvested Any Soybeans Lately?
"I would only eat meat if I killed it myself!"
This statement is one I have heard countless times from vegetarians and vegans. I often think: Have you ever cleared a forest? Have you plowed a field — taking the homes and lives of countless wild and feral creatures? Have you ever driven a massive combine harvester over an endless field of soy lit by your tractor's headlights in the middle of the night? Have you stolen food from exotic places?
Why is it okay to be alienated from some foods and the pain associated with their harvest, but not others?
Beyond Veganism, Domestication, and Dogma: A Place-Based Diet
It isn't surprising that we are confused, that we really don't know what to eat or how to live. We are coming from a place of complete rootlessness, reared by a culture that eradicates traditional knowledge. Veganism is the child of this situation. Born in the storm of civilization, it has no roots and only makes sense in the context of this confusing culture.
So how do we live?
I have no easy answer, not for myself, not for others. Factory farming is a tragedy, the whole industrial food system is too. Agriculture itself is unsustainable and so, by association, is veganism. We need to learn how to live in balance with what our land bases want to give us — to "live in the hands of the gods," as Daniel Quinn put it. This is how all creatures live, it is the way of life, but how do we realistically get there?
Seven billion people cannot live as forager-hunter-gardeners. But then again, seven billion people cannot live under industrial agriculture without killing the planet (and themselves), so that is a moot point. Like all other creatures, if we weren't farming, our land base would determine our population.
Really, there are no easy answers. And that's exactly what veganism can be: something that makes us stop thinking and questioning, something that seems attainable because it plays into the plans of the system. I do not propose we all go back to hunting and gathering, I have no proposition but for us to look at these hard truths, acknowledge them and see where they lead.
There is something beyond veganism, beyond a diet of domestication and dogma. A place-based diet. A diet based on relationship, on the realness of taking plant and animal life, for the greater good of all living things. Talk to the land.
©2012 by Miles Olson. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher,
New Society Publishers. http://newsociety.com
This article was adapted with permission from the book:
Unlearn, Rewild: Earth Skills, Ideas and Inspiration for the Future Primitive -- by Miles Olson.
Picture a world where humans exist, like all other living things, in balance. Where there is no separation between "human" and "wild." Unlearn, Rewild boldly envisions such a world, probing deeply into the cultural constraints on our ability to lead truly sustainable lives and offering real, tangible tools to move toward another way of living, seeing, and thinking.
Click here for more info and/or to order this book.
About the Author
Miles Olson has spent the past decade deeply immersed in learning and practicing earth skills; living intimately with the land on the forested edge of a sprawling city. While foraging, hunting, gardening, and gathering for his livelihood, his life has been shaped profoundly by a desire to nurture healthy relationships with humans and the non-human world. Miles’ experiences have put him at the forefront of the rewilding movement, radical self-reliance, and the impact of civilization on the natural world.
