Page 71 - Spring2015

Tim's DVD Reviews

impressions of its provenance. They found a rich, Plains with incredibly deep, fertile topsoil. It did not get that way by random
fertile land unlike anything they had seen in forces of nature but by Plains Indians partnering with animals, namely
Europe. Because their diseases wiped out much bison. They had a lot of the big bovine, more than we have today. The
of the native population, the land superficially West was not an untouched wilderness sparsely populated by a bunch of
appeared to be untouched by human hands. This vegans.
has led to the conclusion that good environmental All that fire and the resulting smoke, all those cattle, and all those
stewardship means letting nature run its course people did not cause global warming, did not destroy the land, did not drive
with no human interference. I highly recommend species to extinction and did not wreak general havoc on the environment.
reading the book 1491 to understand what really There was no Smokey the Bear to whine about fire. There was no dead
happened. zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The sky did not fall. It was sustainable and
Before Columbus, the Western Hemisphere was sustained for centuries if not thousands of years. This movie repeat-
was about as well populated as the Eastern edly claims that we cannot support as many cattle as we have now. These
Hemisphere and those inhabitants were brilliant claims were disproven five hundred years ago. I guess some people are a
at managing land and resources. In the East, little slow to get it. Some vegans have been farming their own way for a
European colonists found savannahs and woods few decades at most and claim that it is sustainable. Decades don’t mean
clear enough to ride a horse through. Woods diddly. Come back in a couple of centuries and show me. Then maybe I’ll
untouched by human hands are choked with be impressed.
underbrush, fallen trees and debris. You can’t The producer may have been well-intentioned. I don’t know. I try
walk, let alone ride, through such woods. How to be sensitive to people’s feelings and be nice and I’m trying now. This
did the ancient forests end up so clean? They were film is impressive—impressively dreadful, intellectually lightweight, and
regularly groomed with fire by the residents of fear-mongering. It is a pile of steaming hot, USDA grade A, grain-fed,
that time. According to some accounts those fires cow-phobic drivel. That is about as nice as I can be. Before he finished
were really big. Healthy trees survived. Sick and the film Andersen discovered he was in danger of losing all his funding.
dead trees and brush didn’t. Apparently this movie was too pessimistic even for Chicken Little. Have
Further west the Europeans found the Great you guessed yet that my thumb is DOWN for this thing?

HEALTHY 4 LIFE: WAPF DIETARY GUIDELINES AND RECIPE BOOK
Our colorful 84-page guidelines booklet with recipes provides sensible, science-
based guidelines. Instead of complicated formulas involving calories and grams,
which most people don’t understand, we simply recommend including high-
quality foods from four food groups in the diet every day. The good groups are:
• Animal foods, including meat, dairy, seafood, and bone broths;
• Grains, legumes and nuts—properly prepared;
• Vegetables and fruits, including lacto-fermented products;
• Healthy fats and oils, including butter, lard, coconut oil
and cod liver oil.
The reaction to this publication has been very positive. It is suitable for use in
schools and other programs. To order online, go to westonaprice.org. Booklets
are $10 each or $6 each for orders of ten or more. Now available in Spanish!
Wise Traditions SPRING 2015 Wise Traditions 69

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