Abstract and Poster Display Submission Deadline: Monday, October 18, 2010
Please submit application and any questions to: info@westonaprice.org
The Weston A. Price Foundation invites submission of abstracts from health professionals on a broad range of topics relating food and nutrition to health, demonstrating the integration of practice, education and scholarship. Specific topics include but are not limited to incorporating nutrition into your practice, results of nutritional interventions you have made with a specific patient population, or patient teaching projects involving nutrition. All posters must represent your original work.
For full-fee registrants only.
Please use this form to submit abstracts/poster presentations. (MS Word 2003)
Author Name and Title/Credentials: Gigi Berardi, PhD
Professor of Environmental and Food Studies, Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University and Director, Resilient Farms Project
Title of Poster: Resilient Farms, Resilient Cultures: Protecting Traditional Food and Farm Cultures following the WAPF Diet and Grass-Farming Principles
This poster-paper is based on study and research I conducted last year, focusing on traditional food cultures that emphasize good oils, fats, and animal muscle and organs, as well as recent farm research on U.S. farm community vulnerabilities and how best to build regional and household resilience. Case studies include:
• Athabascan Indians in the interior of Alaska (the traditional Tanana Chiefs Conference tribal lands) — Among the Athabascan Indians, threats to subsistence foods and stresses on household economics abound from high energy prices and low Chinook salmon runs to dwindling moose numbers. This poster discusses Tribal councils’ protective action, as well as work in teaching and helping to can and preserve salmon in the villages.
• Swahili coastal tribes in the area of Munje village (near Tanzania) — In Munje village in Kenya, the Digo, a Bantu-speaking, mostly Islamic tribe in the southern coastal area of Kenya, enjoy the possibilities of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and fish/oils. Yet the treasured food is, in fact, the coconut. The poster discusses how coconut is used in the village – from heating mandazi to use as a hair conditioner, and how the coconut meat is eaten between meals. Highlighted is the excellent dental hygiene and health in the village.
• Outer Hebrides – dishes with traditional organ meats and CLO, are sold even at road stands; grass-based farms abound. Discussion of importance of traditional value-added products and grass-based farming, as also experienced in recent resilience work in western Washington (USA).
Author Name and Title/Credentials: Joseph Heckman, Ph.D. Soil Science
Title of Poster: Pastures and Livestock Build Soil Fertility
Abstract
In organic farming systems building soil quality and organic matter content are a priority. Raising livestock on pasture is a key cultural practice. As organic farming pioneer Albert Howard keenly observed that “Mother earth never attempts to farm without live stock; she always raises mixed crops…” For purpose of documenting how effective pasture based farming systems are at building soil organic matter levels, a survey was conducted to measure soil organic matter under pastureland and plowed row cropland in the Mid-Atlantic region. Soil samples were collected by sampling the surface 0 to 6 inch layer during the summer months of 2008 to 2010. Some, but not all of the sampled farming operations were certified organic. Pasture types represented dairy, beef, equine, and poultry. Row crops included mostly corn and soybean and sometime vegetable crops. Each pasture sample was paired to a row-crop sample based on proximity and similarity of soil type. Altogether 22 paired sites (pastureland versus tilled row crop fields) were sampled. Soils were analyzed at the Rutgers University Soil Test Lab using the Walkley-Black method. Results show that the average soil organic matter content level was 4.0% for pasture and only 2.5% for row cropland (Table 1). The pasture soils were found to hold about 62% more organic carbon than the row crop soils (statistically different at P= 0.01). This accumulated organic matter associated with pastures serves as a reservoir for soil fertility.
Author Name and Title/Credentials: Sandra K Nicht, E-RYT500, Kripalu Certified Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist, Kripalu Certified Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant
Title of Poster: Naturally Living Well with Ayurveda
Abstract
The Ayurvedic view of life holds that everything in creation is made from the same Five Great Elements which combine in various ways to create the tastes of our food, the tissues of our bodies, and the principles which govern all of them. By knowing our own unique arrangement of these Five Elements, what is out of balance in us, and how the qualities of the Five Elements in our food can bring us back to balance we can shift intuitively between the seasons and through our lives using food and our lifestyle as our medicine.
As a traditional form of medicine, Ayurveda is highly compatible with Weston Price guidelines. Ayurveda, far from recommending vegetarianism to everyone, recommends various animal foods such as ghee and milk for use in medicines as well as in the daily diet. An Ayurvedic lifestyle is one intimately connected with the rhythms of the natural world and one which enables the practitioner to avoid disease by understanding how disease begins as an imbalance of natural energy as well as how to remedy the imbalance with opposing qualities found in food, drink, movement, and routine.