Problems with Vegetarianism
My last story is about Viti Levu,
one of the Fiji Islands and among the largest
islands in the Pacific. When Dr. Price visited,
he thought he might find natives in the interior
living far enough from the sea to be entirely
dependent on land foods. He could not. Everywhere
in the interior, piles of seashells were found.
His guide told him that food from
the sea had always been considered essential.
Even when they were at war with coastal tribes,
the interior tribes had arrangements to send special
plant foods by courier to coastal tribes in exchange
for seafoods. The couriers were never harmed.
(Compare that with the wars between supposedly
civilized societies.) No places were found where
seafoods were not eaten. As Price's studies progressed,
it emerged ever more clearly that healthy, free-ranging
animal life of the land and sea everywhere provided
humans with essential nutrients apparently unobtainable
in adequate quantities from plants.
These stories make it obvious that
the development of native cultures was not simply
a matter of people randomly eating what was available.
Rather, throughout the world, cultures passed
on the accumulated wisdom of the group to the
next generation. This wisdom was concerned with
laws of nature that when ignored lead to sickness,
death, and the degeneration of succeeding generations.
We know not from where this wisdom came. We know
only of its loss from the consciousness of the
vast majority of people today.
There are two points to the stories.
One is that native people everywhere discovered
that following fundamental nutritional laws put
them in harmony with nature. Modern civilization
has chosen to ignore these fundamental truths.
The sophistication of our technical knowledge
has bred arrogance that has precluded an appreciation
of native peoples' superior skill in interpreting
cause and effect. The wisdom of indigenous people
in understanding laws of nature and living in
harmony with these laws is a treasure humanity
must not lose if we ever wish to regain our lost
strength and resistance to disease.
The second point is that native
people had detailed information about using specific
parts of animals and the unique importance of
each part, as well as vast knowledge about the
importance of specific plant foods and the medicinal
use of herbs. The special foods and herbs native
people emphasized had concentrations of nutrients
far beyond that found in foods generally available
to most of us today.
|
