Of Primary Importance:

By Bill Roberts – 2010

During an Ag Economics 101 class at Ohio State University, I was energized by learning that all human endeavors are classified in one of three classifications.
Primary Endeavors: are those concerning the direct production of food, clothing and shelter.
Secondary Endeavors: are those involving manufacturing, government, religion, education and other less essential to existence pursuits.
Tertiary Endeavors: are those involving the arts, recreation and other far less essential to survival pursuits.

For a society to truly flourish, all must be fully engaged by those whose innate desire lines up with each specific pursuit. However, the priority of necessity of each is aptly named.
In our current environment, much attention is drawn to the governmental and economic sector of our culture. That is proper and right because they desperately need attended to. However, I submit to you that there is a flaw in our attention that is of “primary importance.” Quality food in quantity and accessible proximity to meet needs is of absolute primary importance to any sustainable society and culture. Those of us engaged in the production of grass finished beef do so because we have become enlightened to the differences in nutritional quality of meats specifically and foods in general based upon the seeds of origin and the protocols involved in their production. It has been said, “You are what you eat.” I believe that is in part very true. I would add, “You are what you eat and what you believe.”

The national economy has become a slave to universal health care. I would say to you that is unfortunate and foolish. We do not need national health care, we need national health. That can only be achieved by proper nutrition for our minds and bodies. While we are distracted by a mandated health care initiative, our agricultural system and the quality of its production are eroding at an alarming rate. I submit to you that it is a time to take a “check up from the neck up.” If we do not have the necessary nourishment for a healthy soul and body, how can we as a people produce beyond our need to consume?

Time and space do not permit the expose’ of nutritional facts uncovered in the last decade. Nor do they permit the expose’ of the insidious evil propagated by our intellectually esteemed agricultural mass production technologies. It is my intent to merely pose a question, are we as a people stronger and healthier than we were 20 to 30 years ago? If we are, I defer to that reality. If we are not, I ask, “Are we really as a people concerned with that which is of “primary importance?”

I will deal with this more fully in weeks to come. My next topic is, “Why I only want to eat grass finished beef.”