Can We Feed the World on the Primal Blueprint Diet? – Part 1
Every couple weeks, I get an email that asks about the global sustainability of the Primal Blueprint diet. It’s a common question, one that probably deserves a comprehensive answer – or as close to one as I can muster. See, the problem is that the world is really, really big. And the problems that affect the world have many layers. Each of those problems is made up of dozens of smaller problems, localized issues whose solutions – if they even exist – don’t necessarily apply to the others.
Indeed, the question posed in the title of today’s post isn’t just one question. It is many. Next week, I’ll attempt to answer the question(s) as best I can.
But for now, I just have to ask: is it even a valid question?
Let me start this by saying that my gut reaction to this question is largely a logical response. The question is usually presented in a way that implies that if everyone went Primal at once the economies and biosystems of the world would go into a catastrophic death spiral. That a population solely comprised of Primal enthusiasts could never work. I can’t help but think that this concern is somewhat like being worried about what would happen if everyone on earth became hairdressers (or lawyers, or ballerinas, or…). With 7+ billion barbers on our hands and no scissor manufacturers in sight we’d have more than a few problems on our hands, but I won’t be losing sleep at night over this vastly small potentiality. No, that isn’t defeatism rearing it’s ugly head, and yes, it’s not a perfect analogy, but the question has always struck me as a little strange in the first place.
In any case, I think it is safe to say that the chances of the entire world going Primal anytime soon are, well, slight. Yeah, it’s almost December 21, 2012, but I somehow don’t envision a huge Primal paradigm shift happening overnight (starring a Fivefingered John Cusack)
For that to happen…
US corn, wheat, soy, and other grain subsidies that have been firmly entrenched since the 1920s and 1930s would need to be abolished.
Authorities the world over would need to revise their health recommendations, thus admitting that they were wrong on a whole lot of important stuff.
Fast food would have to stop tasting so good to so many people (I know, I know, I find the stuff pretty awful myself, but millions obviously do not share our opinion).
The list goes on and on…
No, the infrastructure, and policies and systems we need to make this a reality may not be here now, but I do think feeding the world on a diet like this might be possible in an ideal world. The raw land, the means, the animals, even the methods all exist. People can physically grow herbs and leafy greens in their backyards, on their windowsill, or in a community garden. They might have to skip an hour of TV to have enough time for it or maneuver past archaic and ridiculous city ordinances to finagle a community garden out of an abandoned lot, but it’s physically possible. Cows already eat grass for most of their lives before heading to the feedlot, so the land’s there, and methodologies like rotational grazing really do seem to work. We couldn’t be living off of roasts and ribeyes, but a global diet of real food raised/grown the right way is entirely possible.
The challenges we face aren’t insignificant, but that’s not going to stop me from trying and it shouldn’t stop you either.
You know what will send a message and have an effect, however faint and minor (for the time being)? Voting with your dollar by eating Primally. Shopping at farmers’ markets. Growing your own vegetables. Raising some chickens or perhaps even a goat, or giving your money to people who do. Buying meat, berries, and greens, not white flour and soybean oil. These actions will draw attention and have an effect because they concern money. And when you proudly eat four pastured hard boiled eggs at lunch while turning down the last of the donuts (that’s been halved and quartered until oblivion by officemates who don’t want to be the person to finish them off) and someone notices that you’ve “really slimmed down” then puts two and two together, you may have unwittingly created another person who votes with their dollar for the same things you do.
And the more individuals get on board with Primal eating, the closer we’ll get to having a chance at real, lasting, “global” change, because every one of those individuals will influence others with their results and their dollars, and the effect will snowball and pick up momentum.
Grass-fed meat, pastured eggs and bacon, organic produce grown in rich soil? Yeah, it’s not for everyone right now. The thing is, though – nothing will ever change if we let the unfortunate global realities dictate our individual diets and render us too guilt-stricken to do the right thing (for our bodies). Vote with your dollar, I say. If enough people put an extra $2 toward pastured eggs instead of the cheaper blander ones, industry will notice. If we throw in the towel because everything isn’t perfect for everyone in the world right away and right now, nothing will ever change.
And it still might not, despite our best efforts. But at least we’ll eat well and live healthier lives than we otherwise would have. In the end, that’s what really matters.
Be sure to leave a comment, and don’t hold back. I’m hoping we get a good discussion going. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Part II where I’ll be digging deeper on this topic next Wednesday!
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Posted By: Worker Bee 2
I’ve gone primal 2 months ago and frankly I don’t care about the others
I still can’t believe my luck having stumbled upon Mark’s page and articles. I am 45, lost 11 kgs in those two months and am feeling like I felt when I was perhaps 30 years old. I never thought I ever had a chance to loose weight -gave away all my smaller size jeans too! Dam, they would come handy now. Thanks Mark for all the work and enlightment you and your team are bringing us. Good bless you. You really made a difference, and what more can be achieved than that?
Just an added note………it takes a moment or two to load at Dr. Mercolas site…it is busy cause the screening is free for a few days so please be patient……..it is worth it…
ET
We have over 500 Paleo/Primal members on our Support group over at My Fitness Pal! And it grows every week. We are doing everything we can to get the word out. And my success in regaining health and hitting a weight I haven’t seen since before puberty has helped convert some folks over there. It makes me feel good when they thank me for my advice (I try not to be pushy). If only my friends and family would listen…
There’s an old saying about a prophet having no honor in his own nation. Strangers are sometimes more likely to respect what we have to say than our friends and family.
I’m glad to hear the “voting with your dollars” mentality becoming more popular with people…not only with their food choices, but also with other purchases they make in their lives.
Many people have had to cut back in recent years because of the economy, and understand better that some things really are just excess and often times these excesses actually end up making you broke, depressed, and ultimately feeling powerless.
If you vote with your dollars for a particular item (at least in a free market), demand goes up for that item, and production will meet the demand because there are always people looking to better their lot and make more money.
It’s hard for everyday people to feel they have any real power over how the world is…I find peace when I realize the only power you really have comes from the small individual choices you make every day.
There is one contributing factor that I want to see happen so people have to get back to the land. Our dependence on fossil fuels for our food system is very high. When fossil fuel prices increase so will food costs across the board. (We are already seeing this increase)
We currently use a high amount of fossil fuels to produce even our vegetables, and this transition will be a tough one as many people have no knowledge and access to space to grow their own vegetables. This is part of the reason I have put in a community garden at the complex I manage. It is a useful tool to teach residents methods for growing their own veggies.
I can’t wait for the day when it becomes cheaper to just sell the cow than to finish it off with corn. We had buffalo when I was growing up and we had no problem just selling them as is.
Well, the question is whether it would be sustainable if the whole world’s population ate primally (meat and veggies). Considering the huge environmental impact meat production has, regardless if it is organically or “industrially” produced, it is highly unlikely that the global climate would cope with such massive production.
Mark dodges the actual question IMHO, is it sustainable eating primal? Does our meat+veggie shopping result in higher meat production leading to negative climate effects and/or other negative impact on the globe?
There is a lot of misinformation on the green side about the footprint of eating meat. Yes, its big if you feed grain in a CAFO operation, No its not if you graze animals on marginal land that will never grow veggies or field crops. Although I still think that 7 billion is not a sustainable number no matter what.
This. It angers me when people regurgitate the tired rhetoric of the environmental impact of raising meat.
I seriously doubt Thomas has ever stepped foot on a farm, or taken the time to talk to farmers about how they raise their livestock. If I have 100 cows grazing 500 acres of grassland (normally too rocky or hilly to use for other agricultural purposes), and I’m not tilling that grassland but rather moving the cows around via managed intensive grazing from one paddock to another, how is that destructive? The land is used productively, and unlike crop agriculture, where repeating tilling releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, continuous grass growth is a carbon-LOCK. Furthermore, since the cattle only eat grasses year-round, there is no dependence on monoculture grains and their destruction to farmland via herbicides, pesticides, and brutal fertilizers.
And to take the Salatin model as guide, one can further have chickens and/or turkeys follow the cows in rotation to clean the grubs from the manure, meaning you double up on zero-impact livestock. The manure is natural fertilizer, and the only inputs are rain, sun, and occasional re-seeding, plus labor to move the cows.
Same model, some variation, for lambs and porkers.
I’ve seen these practices, with some variation, undertaken at dozens and dozens of farms within a 50 mile radius of my house. Of course, I take the time to actually visit the farms, talk to the farmers, learn their methods and concerns, and to buy directly from them.
Amen brother!
Bingo! The environmental impact of beef is related to the feed lot, grain finishing process – not pastured, grass fed beef. Raising the grain/feed and those methane concentrating factory feed lots are what damage the environment.
Pastured livestock make a LOT of sense. And, as Mark points out, we don’t just consume muscle meats but can make use of the entire animal.
Maybe a better question would be “Should the whole world go primal” even if it were possible to feed the world in a Primal lifestyle. Diversity, free-thinking, trial and error, questioning, religious beliefs, etc. are just a few traits that have lead to better (and, yes, in some cases worse) lives for our earthly population.
If we were all complacent about being stuck in the same rut – Primal or otherwise – new ideas would not have the stress they need to flourish. It’s was the need for something “better” for ourselves that lead to developing the Paleo/Primal lifestyle in the first place.
Remember: Stress = Change.
Amen! Sing it sista! LOL
Good thinking.
The nay-sayers and their Malthusian argument have been around since primal man. ALL RESOURCES ARE SCARCE! Unshackle REAL capitalism, i.e. have competition in money and let real prices and competition work.
Yes. A world with more economic freedom will be a world with more individuals having the opportunity to go Primal; and if more choose to do so, the supply will rise to meet the demand.
“Authorities the world over would need to revise their health recommendations, thus admitting that they were wrong on a whole lot of important stuff.”
This would be the biggest deterrent…
No kidding!
Let us not forget all the money that won’t be pumped into health care and the big pharmacy as a result of us all being healthier.
+1
Yeah, too bad so sad for big pharma.
Yes, we will need to re-employ quite a few marketing execs, packaging, engineers, production workers, truckers, radiologists and helpers – the whole industry, and also other industries. I think the “Empty Shelves Initiative” will be very effective at re-focusing people on the new job opportunities – such as neighbourhood farmer or “security” thug.
I just clipped this from a Wikipedia article on WWII Victory Gardens:
“The US Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 20 million victory gardens were planted. Fruit and vegetables harvested in these home and community plots was estimated to be 9-10 million tons, an amount equal to all commercial production of fresh vegetables.” We have ample precedent in this country for pulling together under threats to our wartime security (though not recently). I wonder if we have the national will to pull ourselves out of the Big Food-Big Pharmadeath trap that most of our citizens are stuck in.
My local extension is teaching Victory Garden classes here in Idaho. I think there is a growing demand.
I would ADORE that! I wonder if there’s anything like that here in the SF Bay!
I am SO glad to see someone mention WWII Victory Gardens! You are totally right about the precedent.
When I visited NZ in the ’70′s, many urban front yards there had kitchen gardens instead of grass. The people there often mentioned American Victory Gardens and wondered why we had stopped growing them. Well, my family never has.
Hi there
I read so much about environmental degradation and climate change and what our children are going to face in 20 years time…. surely a more protein/meat based diet is NOT good for our planet???? We all know that methane and carbon are killing us?
Is vegetarianism the way to go or NOT?
Diets are SO confusing at the mo as everyone is publishing their own book BUT what about the ENVIRONMENT???
We are not a herbivore. An omnivore that seems to require at least some animal food sources to stay fit and healthy. This decision was made long ago, same as the choices other animals took to become what they are. We stepped off Natures path and have massively grown our population on fossil energy. We may not have a plan to back down off that limb we’ve gone out on. You can choose to eat in a way that does not match your body, but understand what the odds are that you, by chance, have some good adaptations towards our species becoming a herbivore.
Surely you are being hysterical without empircal data??? Please see my post above??? It deals with farm models that are not environmentally destructive??? And please, by all means, BREATHE???
Good to see that you are interested enough to read about primal living. Keep on reading about the way we should live as we developed from our cave roots and you will see how practical and healthy it is. Yes, we have a long way to go in educating others, but that is our quest.
Here’s the problem.
I go to the Farmer’s Market, have for years. They even have a little store where you can buy pastured meat, eggs, and milk etc in the winter. So I go once a week for my stuff.
I get excited. I tell some friends. They go, they tell some friends. And so forth.
Next time I go to the Farmer’s Market or store, guess what? They are OUT of grass fed beef, OUT of free range eggs, OUT of organic kale. I can’t get anything for myself. All the people who I ‘spread the word’ to have gone and bought up the limited supply of food.
Until more people get into this kind of farming and production, there just isn’t enough to go around. So I stopped telling people. Selfish, maybe, but my family has got to come first.
I can recommend my friends to dozens of farms in the area that I have personally visited and bought from. I have NEVER experienced shortages from these farms based on excess consumer demand; the only times of shortage are due to the seasonal nature of animal husbandry, e.g., lambs are harvested primarily in spring, turkeys in fall, etc. People who are informed about this will stock up seasonally.
Perhaps the solution would be to shop beyond just one single farmer’s market, and to build connections to several farmers.
Yes, that’s good advice and the route that I am taking as well. You have to often buy a beef in advance, for example, but then you are assured of meat for the freezer at some point. Once you are into that cycle you just stay with it.
I think it is possible for the entire world to go primal. But also agree it would take a massive change in how we grow and harvest food. Take a simple example. If the buffalo were still roaming the plains at their original numbers, and we harvested 10% of them per year for food (a sustainable number), we would have enough meat for almost everyone in the United States. This totally ignores all other meat sources. Mountain goats thrive on territory that cannot be farmed and is difficult to urbanize. If we work with the natural environment, I think we can easily feed the world on a primal diet.
I agree completely with the “how” that you outlined. I disagree with your assessment that 7 billion can do this. The land area of the globe, divided by 7 billion is roughly 6 acres per person. Remove tundra, desert, boreal forest, etc and you get about 2 acres per person. (BTW that leaves nothing for other species). How can an average of 2 acres arable land possibly support a 150 lb predator? It can barely do that for a herbivore. The only way we do it now is fossil fuel.
How many ribs must a man BBQ before you can call him a man ?
the answer my friend is blowing in the wind , the answer is blowing in the wind.
Isn’t a pre agriculture diet by definition sustainable.
But the question is flawed , people don’t make omelettes for the world or bbq steaks for the world , they feed themselves and their families , when their friends come over they feed them too.
Can individuals make better choices for themselves and the planet? I think so.
I think evolution will solve this. Those who continue to eat the SAD and global equivalents will eventually die out from disease, and those that are left will be those who eat healthfully.
I wonder if that is evolution or government hidden agenda? They don’t want to pay out too many old-age pensions after all…. or perhaps I am just too cynical in my old age?
Actually, eventually some may successfully adapt to grains, but I think this would be a much slower process than our rate of consuming finite resources.
Hey there Mark,
Just got your book Primal Blueprint and been reading it for a couple days. Even though I started cutting grains from my diet the moment I heard about you via Tom Woods on the Peter Schiff Show. Like you, I don’t find the question to be a significant one. Because at the moment we are in the Green Revolution and we are essentially eating fossil fuels (since nitrogen fetilizers are used on big agra farms). The question should be whether or not the current population of the world is sustainable. In which case, it has nothing to do with being Primal. If anything, being Primal is the proactive way to live.
The one thing I never understood is why everyone is so focused on cattle. What about all the other food walking, slithering, & flying around us. You know, the deer, squirrels, rabbit, reptiles, insects, birds etc, etc. I see a LOT of that “food” being untouched everyday.
The most frequently eaten red meat worldwide is goat (not cow). The most frequently consumed milk is goat.
Love this article! Can’t wait for more! Thank you Mark!
The best thing we can do for the world is to stop promulgating dangerously false nutritional information. The rest of the world can take care of itself.
I am a 42 year old diabetic who now better understands my disease and is finally getting it under control through diet rather than the slow steady progression of more drugs and finally insulin injections. I have to say I am glad I have the income and the knowledge to change my diet and change my life. When I tell people about primal living often their response is, “ I’m willing to give up a few years if that means I don’t have to give up bread. I LOVE BREAD” They are making a choice and are so brainwashed by the current system that expecting them to suddenly change is not likely, even when given the facts. Sugar and grains are addictive and addicts rarely change their behavior until they hit rock bottom. Our medical system props them up by giving them false information and treating the symptoms with higher doses of more expensive drugs. The question of whether or not the population can be sustained at present levels with a primal diet is likely NO. As Mark has pointed out, the real question that should be asked is whether it will ever demand to be.
The question is silly. The root cause of unsustainability is the fact that we have 7 billion people, not that we have an “unsustainable diet”.
I’m fully in line with Paul Shepard, a primal diet is just the start, to be fully human, we need to be hunters (not luddite hunters, technological hunters, but hunters all the same).
“White European/Americans cannot become Hopis or Kalahari Bushmen or Magdalenian bison hunters, but elements in those cultures can be recovered or re-created because they fit the heritage and predeliction of the human genome everywhere…”
From Coming Home To The Pleistocene, Paul Shepard
I am currently shopping for a compound bow to join the shotguns and rifles I already own. Hunting is definitely the next level for me.
Me, too. I’m a 55 yo woman and I intend to hunt deer this fall….. Learning over the summer. And there are a trillion rabbits in my neck of the woods to capture. It’s NOT all about beef.
The unsustainable rise of global population has been enabled by easy energy – first coal, then petro. Farming grains has been around for much longer, and didn’t result in 7 billion of us. But it no doubt propelled us from a marginal niche to significant numbers (like 500 million). Farming on the current vast scale is simply not doable without the almost free energy we have enjoyed for the last three or more generations. It will sort itself out.
I actually had a discussion with an individual who *strongly* suggested that the oceans are too overfished the way it is, so we need to continue eating farm-raised fish. I was able to find some sources citing the antibiotic, pesticide, and poor feed quality leading to poorer nutrient-dense fish, but I was unable to refute any of his EPA sources regarding overfishing. Is this something we should take into consideration?
Its not controversial, its a fact to say that we have depleted the stock of large fish and are working our way through the next ones in line. As a species, we are prepared to eat algae if necessary. In Haiti after the earthquake, people ate mud to keep the stomach from being empty. How’s that for eating low on the food chain.
The first thing this made me think of is the Norway Butter Shortage taht happened around Christmas!
It might be important to also consider that much of Americas farmland is not currently in production and the number of farmers has been greatly reduced in the last 30 years. Even with lower yields it could be possible to feed most people a much improved diet, but it would also require a shift to nutrient dense foods from the high sugar grain based diet that is currently the norm. People simply aren’t willing to make that change as most of the population was raised on this diet and cannot imagine living another way. We should simply be glad that there IS a paleo movement because otherwise in another 20 years we might not have these choices at all. A day may be coming where all non-GMO seeds are more illegal than pot is today and plants and seeds are smuggled and sold in back alleys like narcotics. Oh the irony.
I have been eating this way for years since I read Steffanson’s book Fat of the Land– and recently have moved into a more organic/natural diet. I have to say I eat a lot less (calories) than the average person but Primal eating is so much more nutritious, filling, and healthier that the money saved by not buying junk evens it all out. The world would have to wean itself off so much garbage that it would be impossible for everyone to go primal– but maybe in the next lifetime (eternity in Heaven) we will get back to what God intended for us all along!
Well as long as you don’t mind getting rid of forests, national parks, and any other wild spaces to make room for grasslands to satiate all those grass-fed domesticated animals, everything should be just fine. Who cares about the rest of the species and ecosystems on earth, the most important thing is that I get my hamburger!
I think you are incorrect that natural habitat needs to be destroyed. Bison roamed the plains prior to the settling of the U.S. western states. They were grass feed, and there is more forested land in North America now than there was at that time. I’m not sure why you would immediately make the leap to destroying the rainforest from a question about sustainability.
Wild hogs prefer swamps and forests. We could pasture domestic pigs in similar environments.
Deer also like wooded areas, and make a mean chili. The populations need management, and sometimes they even need to be culled from parkland. I’m not sure about the viability of properly domesticating them, though.
And then there is a matter of not needing that much beef. I’m sure the McDonald’s already knows how to make critter-burgers just as addictive as their current menu, they just haven’t put the effort into marketing it.
I think it can be done. It will take a shift and producers will take notice and have to change. I found a CSA in my area and my $400 a month on groceries now goes to them, two of my co-workers followed me on this path, two of each of thier friends. Next year this CSA may need to grow more or add more and new farmers. Over time major groceries will take notice and change to get us back spending money with them.
I have been eating this way for almost a year. I plan on eating this way for life.
Support your local farmers! lakesuperiorcsa.com
A great discussion. It’s all about supply and demand, isn’t it? And a little bit of a vicious cycle? People eat subsidized processed foods because they’re cheap, plentiful, and non-perishable. Organic food (in many areas) is expensive. Even as a fairly poor person myself, I still do my absolute best to support responsible food sources, and see it as helping to create a shift in the supply-demand chain. On a drive x-country last year, I was forced to scavenge in the oddest of places, and you know what? The change is happening. Wal-mart carries local organic produce, grass-fed meat, and ground bison (in some parts of the USA). Many of us probably spend our time boycotting Wal-mart (normally, I do) but think about it- being a responsible Wal-mart consumer could drive major change as well as supporting your local farmers. Frequent use of Yelp on my travels landed me some of the best meals I’ve ever eaten- local, fresh, delicious PRIMAL food. So many opportunities to “vote with my dollar.” Thanks, Mark, for this great post!
The world survived long before the farmer started killing us with wheat and the food companies piled on with chemicals and the fast food makers added the last nail in our coffins…. They will just keep killing us as long as we let them. I see a long long long wait until the world goes primal. Like maybe NEVER. Good…more grass fed meat for me!