Why we began a local chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation

Chapter Leaders, Larry and Tina Howard Family

In 2004 our family began raising sheep on our small farm just outside of Bloomington to provide meat for ourselves and to maintain the farm's pastures. Through this experience, we became aware of the limitations of conventional pharmaceuticals (e.g., antibiotics and anthelmintics) in veterinary care and increasingly convinced of the environmental benefits of an all grass-based approach to livestock farming, as well as the the health benefits for both the sheep and for us. We began searching for ways to produce all-natural, beyond-organic lamb in a way that would enhance the soil fertility of our farm while conferring the health benefits of an all grass-based diet.

Our youngest son was born around the same time. Although he was nursing, he had an apparent intolerance to dairy, egg and soy products. Another health-conscious family in our house church fellowship recommended goat's milk. However, Tina had an allergic reaction to the pastuerized goat's milk (she later discovered that she does not have the same reaction to raw goat's milk). We were pointed to cow shares by a friend from whom we purchased grass-fed beef. We began researching the pros and cons of drinking raw cow's milk and one of the resources we discovered was a Weston A. Price Foundation -endorsed web site www.realmilk.com. We decided to try the raw milk and haven't regretted it since. Our cow receives an all-grass diet without the use of antibiotics, hormones or synthetic drugs. We also added pastured eggs to the diet and eliminated any unfermented soy products. Our son's health has been excellent ever since. Notably, he still experienced extreme gastrointestinal effects through his second year when visiting relatives and consuming storebought eggs or milk. After this, we also began eating pastured chicken and buying local produce. The health of our entire family has benefitted from these changes. Remarkably, our two-year old daughter who suffered from asthma symptoms, ear-infections and unexplained diarrhea for months before the switch, also experienced a complete turnaround in her health. Today, at 4, she shows no signs of asthma and no ear infections.

To support our farming goals, we subscribed to the Stockman Grass Farmer , a publication for graziers in North America, and it was there that we noticed a reference to Micheal Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. Even though we had already made changes in our diet, Pollan's insightful book turned out to be an eye opener regarding America's modern food system and the chronic diseases it produces. It also led us to be more aware of the manipulation of food regulations by large corporations that prevent small-scale farmers from direct marketing. This led us to do more research, which led us again to the Weston A. Price Foundation. WAPF not only provides consumers with a wealth of invaluable nutritional information, it also has been instrumental in the inception of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund designed to protect the rights of consumers to purchase food directly from local, trusted sources.