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We need another and a wiser
and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals…
We patronize them for their incompleteness,
for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves.
And therein we err and err greatly.
For the animal shall not be measured by man.
In a world older and more complete than ours,
they move finished and complete,
gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained,
living by voices we shall never hear.
They are not brethren; they are not underlings;
they are other nations,
caught with ourselves in the net of life and time,
fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.
Henry Beston 1888-1968 |
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SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND HOLISTIC MEDICINE:
Homeopathy on the Family Farm
My experience in trying to blend the philosophy and application of sustainable agriculture with the philosophy and application of holistic medicine has come from my association with the Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania. For the past several years the HMSSP has hosted a conference entitled "Homeopathy: Health from the Ground Up".
At the HMSSP conference sustainable agriculture is held to be an integral part of holistic medicine, with nutritious whole foods being touted as our most versatile medicine. Without proper farming techniques, the soil becomes depleted. The foods - plant and animal crops alike - produced from these depleted soils lack vitality and nutritional completeness. Without optimal nutrition, there is no hope for wellness and wholeness in our animal or human populations. Regardless of any other health care choices, our health depends on the health of the soil.
The task for this paper is to show that the opposite premise is also true - that holistic medicine is an integral part of sustainable agriculture.
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