Ethos Farm to Health supports both human and planetary health
Ethos Farm to Health (EFTH) was founded and nurtured by Dr. Ronald Weiss. Dr. Weiss has embraced the fabled quote attributed to Hippocrates, the “father of medicine:” “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. The best medicine would be the healthiest food – for the health of both people and the planet. Ethos Farm supplies just such food, using strictly organic agricultural practices.
EFTH is about workable, scalable solutions, supporting the movement toward local, decentralized, regenerative agriculture, placing it at the vanguard of the planetary health movement. Wikipedia defines planetary health as “a new science for exceptional action” that supports “the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends”.
EFTH and Dr. Weiss also promote whole food plant-based eating, one of the best hopes for planetary health and human health. I can vouch for this firsthand having been vegan for about a dozen years (and having been an organic gardener since the 1970’s). My wife and I decided to go on a plant-based diet when I hit my 60’s, after watching the movie “Forks over Knives.”
We wanted to remain healthy for the next phase of our lives, and to avoid the diseases we saw many of our friends contracting. We wanted to prevent the common, life-ending cycle of multiple prescriptions and procedures that are regularly endorsed by those industries that benefit financially from people getting sick, like many medical, pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Plant-based eating worked for us. Now in our 70’s we are prescription-free, as well as a few pounds lighter and a lot healthier.
A few years ago, we found Dr. Ronald Weiss and realized that although we were on a plant-based diet – which was great for the planet and the animals – we really should tweak it a bit to maximize our health. We had slipped into the “pleasure trap” of eating a lot of vegan junk food (most deserts can be vegan-ized, which we quickly discovered).
Dr. Weiss is double Board certified, with a degree in internal medicine plus a second degree from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM). He writes prescriptions when a patient is sick, but his focus is on wellness – preventing disease in the first place.
Dr. Weiss explained the value of avoiding processed foods and eating mostly a whole food plant-based diet. When we can pick up fresh organic produce from Ethos Farm, it makes our lifestyle easier! But beyond our diets, Lifestyle Medicine also rests on other important pillars, like exercise, stress reduction, mindfulness, encouraging positive social connections, sleeping well, avoiding tobacco and risky substances, and connecting with nature.
My wife and I looked at the many benefits of embracing those pillars, and also at the challenges. We are pragmatists, but committed to health and we understand the benefits of incremental progress in our plant-based journey. We find a comforting truth in an old quote repeated by Dr. Michael Greger (a Founding Member and Fellow of the ACLM): “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” We do our best with our food, with mostly good days, weeks and months, as well as a few less-good patches. But seeing the improvement in our health, especially compared to most people our age, has been remarkable.
I play adult recreational ice hockey. Soon after going vegan my teammates asked repeatedly how I was getting better at my age. When I credited my improved stamina and agility to not eating meat – they stopped asking. But later, a few of them came up to me privately and asked how they could get started.
Plant-based eating is not just about living longer (which is nice), but more importantly it is about being healthier every day. We want to be active, to garden, to engage in sports and to enjoy life with our children and grandchildren – and we do!
People talk about 3 reasons to move to a plant-based diet: personal health, reducing animal cruelty, and concern for the environment – all of which are important to me. But I have a fourth and it is big. In fact, it may have been the biggest motivator for me – but I will save it for the next blog.