Eating Sustainably

tamo42 wrote:
I wasn't specifically talking about cattle.  Let's put it this way:  I'm against feeding any organism anything that it is not evolutionarily equipped to digest.

I think this means feeding humans grains and other grasses is a bad idea (along with a whole slew of other poisonous things).

I agree with the principle in the first paragraph, and was trying to suggest that it depends on the variety of a given creature, as well as the species. Some varieties of human have well-documented metabolic adaptations to a diet of fermented grains, and others quite the opposite.

Joel Hollingsworth wrote:
I agree with the principle in the first paragraph, and was trying to suggest that it depends on the variety of a given creature, as well as the species. Some varieties of human have well-documented metabolic adaptations to a diet of fermented grains, and others quite the opposite.

I'd agree to an extent that food tolerances will depend on varieties, but I'm not sure how much difference there will be.  With that said, when you start fermenting grains, their nutritional profile changes quite a bit.  IIRC, the phytates get broken down, but the lectins do not.

OK Im not really into grains mainly because Im opposed to tillage ect.I realize that the book says they are unhealthy .I dont think cultivating them as a staple is sustainable and they dont grow very well where I live.But the fact is that people have survived off of them all over the world.They cant be too poisonous!Horticultural cultures often depended on starchy nuts and roots for calories.Its good to avoid too much filler but to ideologicaly remove options based on "science"or belief would seem like a poor choice as well.

I am curious as to why no one has suggested Corn, as a grain, I know corn is a heavy feeder, but in a system where nothing goes to waste, nothing gets wasted.

Native Americans were able to grow corn sustainably for 1000s of years, and it would seem to me that given all the things you could get from it, ( corn on the cob, flour, animal feed, etc. ) that it would be on most peoples list.

Here in the tropics, we have a squash the locals call "Auyama" this thing grows easily all over, and taste great, they look similar to the Seminole squash and wonder if they are related.

With these squash you can basically just plant them and walk away. some get huge.