Food-is-Medicine Movement Gaining Ground in Texas
In some circles we talk about food-as-medicine (FAM), a term that tends to focus on functional foods which have been studied for their healing effects on the body. It might also refer to FAM programs in a healthcare plan, or in Government policy.
But food really is medicine and this fact was perfectly embodied in the 4-day Food-is-Medicine Summit I was privileged to attend recently in the heart of Texas Hill Country on a regenerative farm. It was attended by a wide variety of humans from farmers, activists and influencers, to doctors, nurses, and “civilians” who just want to heal their bodies and their communities.
Sovereignty Ranch
The location itself transmitted the promise of all that we were discussing: a 200-acre regenerative farm that became the passion of Mollie Engelhart, a vegan chef from Los Angeles, and her husband Elias, who forged a new life for themselves and their 4 kids in 2021.
Sovereignty Ranch exhibits the symbiotic relationship between all of God’s creation. There are cows rotating daily through different plots of pasture, chickens who freely follow them to eat the grubs in the cow pats and lay eggs in all different colors, pigs living on the food waste from the kitchen, and greenhouses growing a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and medicinal herbs all nourished by the fertile soil.
The key tenets of regenerative farming are: no tillage of the soil, no chemicals, using cover crops to control weeds, grazing animals to replenish lost nutrients, and leaving the soil and the land better than when you found it – that’s the regeneration. Sovereignty Ranch is new by farm standards but already showing that this is not a pipedream but how God intended us humans to live: feeding our communities in stewardship of the land.
It’s not only a local community endeavor: some regenerative farms are thousands of acres and vastly more profitable than their conventional counterparts wasting money on chemicals that only further deplete the soil.
At Sovereignty Ranch, you can sample everything they raise at the onsite farm-to-table restaurant, The Barn. Their many accommodation options let you stay a while. The great food was part of the appeal when signing up to attend the Summit with an extensive menu available all day.
Eat Your Healings
My favorite parts of the schedule were listed as Eat Your Healings interludes. In one session we got to learn about the benefits of fermented foods and their importance to our health and then sample some freshly made kimchi.
Another session focused on bone broth as the healing elixir it is for gut problems, autoimmune conditions, chronic Lyme disease and more. We heard about best practices in making your own bone broth infused with herbs and vegetables from Alyssa Seeland who started out making small batches to sell at the local farmers market and now has contracts with a major grocery chain while still maintaining the same small-batch processes in her company Fond Regenerative.
My favorite food session was the sourdough bread. I love bread as I’ve written about but became highly gluten intolerant 15 years ago. I make an Einkorn sourdough for my family with nothing but organic Einkorn from Europe, water and salt. But I limit myself to one piece from each loaf I bake (no more than monthly) as if I eat any more, the resulting pain from pericarditis (inflammation of the sack around my heart) is just not worth it.
However, Mollie had stayed up all night making pure sourdough for the attendees to try from another type of heirloom wheat grown entirely organically by Oatman Farms and freshly milled the night before. I had to try it. A big fat piece with a generous smear of fresh butter. That was the secret I learned – the Einkorn I had been purchasing was commercially milled and sat as flour on a shelf for months before I used it.
I felt no ill effects from the one piece but will have to do some more research before I fully embrace organic heirloom wheat as a healthy staple for me. According to Dr Ben Edwards who spoke in a couple of different sessions, Celiac disease can be healed and organic wheat can and should be part of a healthy diet.
Build Your Own Homestead and Ranchise
The most intriguing session was a presentation by TJ Visiodei and Adam Parks about ACTS Decentralized Real Estate which helps families build their own regenerative homestead. They assist with:
Financing
Construction of your homestead
Ranchising the animals
Food sales for the meat and crops you don’t need for your own family
Cabins or other accommodations to rent out
Education for all the steps along the way.
Best of all the homesteads are within a like-minded community using deed restrictions to ensure your neighbors have the same goals and aspirations as you do.
They have active communities in Texas, Florida and Tennessee so far and are looking for the next couple of states, likely Montana and California. If you dream of growing your own food and living off the land, but are daunted by the cost and lack of experience, these guys are definitely worth checking out.
Education
The pure educational sessions at the Summit included Kelly Ryerson, otherwise known as Glyphosate Girl. Kelly presented the science on how detrimental glyphosate is to our bodies and the other pesticides, herbicides and fungicides covering our conventionally grown produce and by extension: processed foods made with the cheapest industrially made ingredients.
One nugget from Kelly – beyond the conventionally grown wheat, corn and soy, that many people know are covered in chemicals and grown from GMO seed bred to withstand them, watch out for chickpeas! Always choose organic hummus.
Kelly shared two recent studies which are interesting: one showing that high levels of glyphosate were found in mothers who gave birth to babies with genital complications implicating glyphosate in the emasculation of baby girls. The other showing that glyphosate is a key risk factor for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Another educational session was from Ali Miller, a functional nutritionist who focused on the nervous system and how natural whole foods build resilience and can heal the worst chronic conditions. A recovered vegan herself, Ali explained how the cereal maker General Mills sponsored the creation of the Registered Dietician qualification and how companies like Pepsico and CocaCola continue to support the education of conventional dieticians engrained in the concepts of calories, carbohydrates and the evils of red meat.
Two of the most compelling educational sessions were led by functional medicine doctors. First, Dr Ben Edwards simply told his own story of conventional medical school leading to a conventional physician’s clinic writing prescriptions and spending a maximum of 7 minutes with each patient. It took several years to realize none of his patients were getting any better. When one of his nurses announced he’d been cured of Celiac disease through natural methods it led him on a journey of discovery.
Now you’ll find Dr Ben focusing on nutrition, hydration and movement as key to health. But his podcast name says it all: You’re the Cure. The doctors in white coats having spent years in medical school do not have all the answers.
Dr Ben then facilitated a second session with a panel that included Dr Derek Guillory of Root Causes medical clinic in San Antonio. Another MD with his own journey against the establishment, Dr Derek is an expert on the wide ranging health issues caused by heavy metals like mercury and lead, and warned against conventional dentists who can make matters worse trying to remove mercury fillings. Additional panelists included Yovanna Mendoza, formerly a Latino vegan influencer, until her body broke down from lack of nourishment; and Meisha Tate, a former UFC women’s world champion who had wrecked her body from years of rigorous training including staving herself to make weight, not understanding what healthy nutrition entailed.
Activism
Education is good but what seemed to bind summit attendees together was a sense of purpose and community as connections were made and alliances formed. It’s not just about the health of individual bodies, but the health of the soil, the country and the world that is at stake.
Several of the speakers are sacrificing a peaceful existence to fight in Washington, DC for policies that will support the Food-is-Medicine reality for the rest of us. Here’s just a few of the causes to be aware of:
Chemical companies are pushing for a pesticide liability shield (similar to the vaccine liability shield of 1986) that would mean no one can sue if their health problem is as a result of being exposed to one of these chemicals.
Removal of toxic food dyes from food. Played down by the media but this was a hard fought battle over many years and is a huge step forward to reduce the toxicity of processed food.
A proposal to revise the dietary guidelines (MyPlate.gov) without influence from Big Food or industry.
Another proposal will revise standards for baby formula which today is almost entirely junk food, full of sugar, corn or soy, and putting our children on the wrong path from an early age.
Initiatives to support breast-feeding moms and for more education on how critical breast-feeding is to a healthy child.
GRAS regulation review. These enable chemicals to be used in our food in small quantities if Generally Recognized as Safe.
Food-as-Medicine programs for low income individuals are incorporating regenerative farm foods to ensure the quality of the food being sourced.
Policies to encourage livestock grazing on BLM land.
While these heroes fight for the rest of us, we can all do our part in supporting them and supporting our local farmers.
Film-Making
One of the best ways to reach the masses on this topic is through visual media; notably the long-form documentary. Film-makers are activists too, usually sacrificing long periods of time and comfort to get their stories to market.
One of the most critically acclaimed documentaries in recent years was Kiss the Ground. Narrated by Woody Harrelson, it won awards at the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s Executive Producer was Ryland Engelhart, Mollie’s brother, and fellow resident on Sovereignty Ranch with his wife and kids. Ryland served as emcee for the 4-day Summit and brought two fellow film-makers to show us samples of their next projects: Brian Sanders’ Food Lies and Mikki Willis’ Code of Creation.
Just to show you the diversity of humans at the Summit enjoying great conversation together, while one film tried to explain the reason we are omnivores is due to our descendance from apes, the other provides clear evidence for our divine creation and the supernatural connection between our DNA and the natural world.
Debunked by Nature: The Book
The last night of the Summit was dedicated to celebrating Mollie Engelhart herself who took the brave step of writing down her journey for anyone to read. The subtitle of her book is How a Vegan-Chef-turned-regenerative-farmer discovered that Mother Nature is conservative.
I highly recommend this book, full of her own personal photos illustrating her rapid shift from LA restaurant owner and self-proclaimed progressive thinker, with feminist ideals, to a regenerative farmer and mother who now holds conservative convictions on motherhood, freedom, biology, nutrition and health.
In looking at the natural world all around us, Mollie provides a new perspective on many topics that we struggle to discuss rationally these days. Knowing where our food comes from, and how important that is to our health is just one of the thorny topics she tackles in her refreshingly raw musings often penned in the wee hours before her family woke up.
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I am forever changed by having attended this summit. Not for the content, as I’m already in this camp and teach others on these topics, but for the community and diversity of ideas I witnessed. One minute I was having a fascinating conversation with a 70-year old farmer who has lived on his farm his whole life, and the next I was collaborating with a busy doctor who gave up his weekend to share his journey and connect the dots for others. I can’t wait for the next summit on Sovereignty Ranch!
