Part 122 - Nicolette Hahn Niman on Defending Beef - Uncovering Why it's Blamed for Health & Environmental Problems

Welcome back everyone! So sorry for the little break in the action. I'm doing a lot of things these days - some might say too many. We got back from filming on the east coast and an amazing event with Dr. Bill Schindler at his food lab. You can catch the presentation by Dr. Cate Shanahan on the Food Lies youtube channel. For new listeners I'm Brian Sanders and this was for my documentary Food Lies and this film tour should be our last. We still don't have a release date for the film, but we're in post-production and working on it daily. My guest today is the great Nicolette Hahn Niman who is a California rancher, lawyer, and writer. She has authored two books about sustainable livestock farming: Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms, and Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production. I read her book years ago, but she's just releasing a new and improved version that I got a pre-release copy of. It is available July 13th but you can pre-order it on https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/defending-beef/ (find the link in the show notes) She's a really interesting person who is a great voice sticking up for beef and sustainable ag. She also has an interesting story about her own relationship with beef that we cover at the end! It's cool to hear her take coming from her background as an environmental lawyer. All of her peers are definitely on the other side of this issue! But guess what, they happen to be wrong! And she's a beef producer herself, so she knows the full story.  I also happen to be somewhat of a beef producer with my company Nose to Tail. Years after learning of the superior nutrition of red meat and other animal foods I decided to partner with some great ranchers and get quality products out to the united states. You can find us at http://NoseToTail.org Our most popular product which is in very high demand is the primal ground beef with liver, heart, kidney, and spleen mixed in. Such an easy and delicious way to get the extra nutrition from the organ meats in your diet. Hopefully we're not sold out when you check us out.  We also added a liver stick to our product line which is under the biltong tab. Biltong is a traditional South African way of curing meat without any preservatives or sugar. The stick version of this is called droewors. We just ran a 2nd batch of this with liver mixed in. It's way better than our first test batch. It tastes really good and has a nice texture. It's almost impossible for me to come up with a healthier product you can eat on the go. This is another limited run so get it while you can at http://NoseToTail.org Check out the superb body care products made from beef tallow there as well along with our freshly ground seasonings to go with the meat! In other news, the Cows 4 Kids campaign is ending soon. Go to http://Cows4Kids.com to pitch in some money for us all to buy some cows for some of the villages in Africa we visited. Mary talked to the director of the Maasai school and he was ecstatic to hear about the funds we are raising. He is going to make a whole event of it and is contacting some media outlets.  There's also http://sapien.org for everything else. We have the program for people ready to change their life with diet & lifestyle, the Sapien Tribe, and more information on the Sapien diet. I'll stop talking about it - just go to Sapien.org to check it all out. You can link to everything there including the Food Lies film website. Now onto the show!   GET THE MEAT! http://NosetoTail.org GET THE FREE SAPIEN FOOD GUIDE! http://Sapien.org   SHOW NOTES [0:45] Her book "Defending Beef" and what it is all about. [2:45] Her background and how she got into her line of work. [7:10] How cattle started to get a bad name in most households.  [10:00] Profit in the 'processing' of food. [17:40] How reports and studies about pollution from cattle and livestock were overblown and off figure. [27:45] The Importance of being familiar with the messiness and danger of nature. [37:20] How cattle/livestock are NOT the cause of poor health and pollution that many try to claim. [42:10] Processed foods such as refined grains and sugars are the true problem. [50:30] Importance of soil, no till for crops, and carbon sequestration in regenerative agriculture. [56:00] Food is more nutrient rich when growing in more biologically diverse and healthy soil. [1:01:00] How the bartering system of animals, plants, and soil all work together.  [1:05:50] How we make our food systems full of life again. [1:15:10] Her backstory of how she did not eat meat for 33 years but now she does.   GET THE MEAT! http://NosetoTail.org GET THE FREE SAPIEN FOOD GUIDE! http://Sapien.org   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg