Newsletter - 2003 Spring

Greetings from Murray Bast:

Welcome to our March Newsletter. Many things have been happening since the winter issue. We held our annual seminar this past January and despite bad weather we had an excellent turn out of approximately 240 people. Our speakers imparted many gems of wisdom to the audience that braved the winter elements. The fellowship and food was fantastic! For a follow up of the day see page 4 in this newsletter. If you are interested in acquiring a video tape of the day contact Head Office.

Please see the flyer included in this newsletter to get the details of an upcoming Livestock Nutrition & Homeopathic Workshop. There will be three separate lectures and workshops held on three separate days in March and April.

Recent Organic Issues Up For Debate

Despite the ongoing problems with Organic labeling, life continues to go on. We still marvel and wonder at our federal government’s inability to come to a definite conclusion on the labeling issue. In order to meet current regulations, we are not allowed to use the word ‘organic’ or include the OCPP logo on any of our labels. The government is communicating with the organic organizations to clarify the issue, yet the end consumers and producers are left in the dark right now as to what is and isn’t allowed and why. Eventually this too will be unraveled and hopefully one of these days soon it will all be sorted out.

We would also like to announce to all Organic Producers that we have a good supply of Organic Alfalfa Seed or Organic Red Clover Seed available this growing season at very reasonable prices. Because seed is very limited we request that producers order quantities in advance so that we have an idea of the type of demand for this product. For more information, check out page 5 of this issue.

One Chicken, Two Chicken…

The farmer’s son was returning from the market with a crate of chickens his father had entrusted to him, when all of a sudden the box fell and broke open. Chickens scurried off in different directions, but the determined boy walked all over the neighborhood scooping up the wayward birds and returning them to the repaired crate. Hoping he had found them all, the boy reluctantly returned home, expecting the worst.

"Pa, the chickens got loose," the boy confessed sadly, but I managed to find all twelve of them." "Well, you did real good, son," the farmer beamed. "You left with seven."

A Look At Homeopathy — Part 3

This is the third and final article in a series of three. To obtain a copy of the two other parts from the last two newsletters, contact Head Office and we would be glad to mail it to you or it can be accessed on our web site.

Preparation

Homeopathy is often wrongly termed herbal therapy. Homeopathic mother tinctures are produced from substances that belong to all three realms of nature:

1. The Vegetable Kingdom
Plants are the source of almost half of all remedies. Plants used to make tinctures are harvested in their natural surroundings. Qualified specialists who follow strict quality standards do this. The harvested plants are then quickly dispatched to a lab in order to be used fresh. Once at the lab they are immediately macerated or chopped up. Next, alcohol is added to the plants and they are soaked for about 21 days. The reason for this is that the alcohol pulls out the medicinal properties of the plant. Finally, the plant is screened and from there the homeopathic remedy is made.

2. The Mineral Realm
Such things as natural salt, chemical products, metals, etc. These are always selected in the purest state.

3. The Animal Kingdom
This includes such things as venoms from venomous insects, reptiles, and animals (eg. bees and spiders etc.), hormones, physiological secretions such as musk, squid ink, etc.

Preparations of all the tinctures are given very careful attention. The mother tinctures are concentrated in such a way that the weight of the dry plant used is ten times the weight of the finished tincture or in the instance of animal products twenty times. Insoluble basic substances (eg. calcium or potassium) are divided three times into the 1/100^th, by adding lactose and triturating with a mortar and pestle.

Nowadays manufactured homeopathic potencies need special precaution when being prepared. It is necessary to use a very pure solvent such as 70 % strength alcohol and distilled water. It is also preferable to carry out the potencies or preparations of these dilutions in the purest possible atmosphere. This means very strict laboratory controls where the air is totally filtered, and where contaminants can be detected and counted with a special apparatus.

In Hahnemann’s day, when the first pathogenesis was established, and the first homeopathic medicines were made, atmospheric pollutants were not an issue. Today as has been said by many professionals, a great deal of caution must be taken during the manufacturing process. The preparation methods for homeopathic medicines have never been kept a secret, and have been included in many volumes of pharmacopias.

Dosage

Dosage is just as important if not more important than preparation. As stated in other issues, homeopathy creates mirror image type of reaction in the body that works on the same line as and reduces the disease in order to heal the patient. The remedy must be administered in doses that are just sufficient enough to assist this reduction without making it worse. Therefore the greater the similarity between the patient’s reactive mode and the pathogenesis, the higher the potency needs to be. This means that for each degree of similarity there is a corresponding level of dilution or potency. For example, in cases where the similarity exists between local symptoms the similarity is low, so a low potency would be administered such as a 3c or 6c. In cases where the similarities are situated on the general symptom level or on the level of aggravation or improvement modalities, similarity is greater so a medium potency such as 12c or 15c should be used. In cases where the similarities are found in the nervous system level or on the level of behaviour or organic lesions, similarity is at its highest because it corresponds to the complete reactive form. For these cases, higher potency should be used such as 30c and higher. Thus in homeopathic medicine, dosage is above all, the degree of the potency. It is this same dosage that determines the quality of physical reaction whether it is local, general, or very deep.

Determining dosage doesn’t just mean figuring out potency, but also how often to prescribe the treatment. For example in acute diseases, the homeopathic remedy is defined according to local or general signs displayed by the patient. The remedy is therefore usually prescribed in low and medium potencies and its reaction is relatively beneficial and short lived. It should be prescribed several times a day. For chronic diseases the homeopathic remedy is defined according to general signs, behavioural, anatomical, or physical signs displayed by the patient. The remedy is described in a high potency because these have a much deeper and longer lasting action. They can therefore be prescribed less often, from once a day to once a month. It must also be understood that increasing the doses in amount does not act quantitatively (as in the case of allopathic medicine), but rather qualitatively depending on the degree of the dilution. Homeopathic remedies do not act by a chemical effect but rather on a molecular level due to the way that they are prepared. Homeopathic remedies dramatically avoid the risk of poisoning or overdose. Consequently homeopathic remedies are quite safe.

There are several ways to administer a remedy, but after years of experimentation, homeopathic physicians came to the conclusion that the best way is to dissolve the remedy under the tongue. Consequently they devised pharmaceutical forms that would give a maximum surface area. Some of these forms are the size 35 pellets that many of you are familiar with that can be given under the tongue or the liquid, which is available in glass bottles sometimes with the new squirt top that puts 10 drops into the mouth at one time. This is actually much better for treating animals because we do not have to battle with putting the pellets or drops in the mouth but rather can just squirt in a pre-measured amount. This is also a better way with animals because the squirt top has less chance of getting contaminated by a sick animal since it can be administered from a further distance.

Because of the dilution and physical state, homeopathic remedies are quite sensitive to all types of pollution. They should be protected from all volatile substances, in other words they should not be kept in a family medicine chest where they could be easily exposed to ether, camphor or perfume. They should be kept away from sunlight and away from electricity.

Something else that should be noted is that classical medicines can often be used along with homeopathic ones. Most classical medicines shouldn’t interfere with homeopathic medicines. This is because homeopathic medicines act by stimulating the organs in self-defense where as classical medicine acts to oppose the morbific effects of disease.

Research

Research as to the efficacy of homeopathy is being carried out at all times and many new studies have emerged to prove its worth as a medicine. To follow are three examples of proof that homeopathy really has merit.

Example 1: When given Alloxan to mice it was found to produce a state of experimental diabetes, or an increase in blood sugar by destroying certain pancreatic cells. If the mice were given preventative injections of the same chemical that was prepared into a homeopathic remedy they did not develop diabetes. It was noted that diabetes and the pancreatic lesions became virtually non-existent.

Example 2: If grains of wheat are poisoned with copper sulfate their germination potential is really lessened especially the weight of the roots coleoptiles. Chlorophyll production and amylase activity is greatly reduced in comparison to normal grain. When however, these poisonous grains were planted in soil that had been treated with a 15c potency of copper sulphates (cuprum sulfuricum) the parameters were significantly improved and approached the parameters of healthy grains.

Example 3: This experiment showed the action of high potency remedies and proved at the same time the veracity of the law of similars. Poisoning by Carbon Petra Chloride that was carried out on rats showed tremendous toxic liver lesions. However if after poisoning rats with Carbon Petra Chloride they were given injections of 15c to 30c potencies of Phosphorus. Their anatomical liver lesions improved, but not only that, their normal biochemical parameters in the blood returned to normal as well.

These studies demonstrate how homeopathic remedies can help to cure infections, cure lesions, normalize the biological constants in the body, and have cures for humans as well as animals. We recognize that cures are not scientific evidence of activity, however scientific phenomenon recognizes such only when it is proved to be statistically significant and reproducible. Many of you using homeopathy know for a fact that this is indeed the case. If it did not work, many of you would not be using it.

In summary, homeopathy is a very useful tool at a very reasonable price. To learn even more on the topic of homeopathy see the flyers sent out with this newsletter for details about the upcoming workshops that are in March & April.

2003 Bio-Ag Farm Seminar Update

At our last seminar, our guest speaker Jani Thomas discussed nutrition and diet, based upon the recommendations from the Weston A. Price Foundation and the cookbook by Sally Fallon, "Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrates". Several people asked for more information on the Foundation–this hopefully will answer several of their questions.

The Weston A. Price Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity in the United States founded in 1999 to spread the research of a nutrition pioneer, Dr. Weston A. Price, whose studies of isolated non-industrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diet. Coined the "Charles Darwin of Nutrition", Dr. Price’s research demonstrated that humans achieve perfect physical form and perfect health generation after generation only when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods and the vital fat-soluble activators found exclusively in animal fats.

The foundation is dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism. It supports a number of movements that contribute to this objective including accurate nutrition instruction, organic and biodynamic farming, pasture feeding of livestock, community-supported farms, honest and informative labeling, prepared parenting and nurturing therapies. They produce a quarterly journal, "Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts" which is dedicated to exploring the scientific validation of dietary, agricultural and medical traditions throughout the world, including articles on human diets, non-toxic agriculture and holistic therapies. For more information, you can see their web site, "www.westonaprice.org" or contact the Foundation at the following mailing address or email address.

Bookworms Haven -- Submitted by Andrea Bender

This month we look at Homeopathy for the Herd — A farmer’s Guide to Low-Cost, Non-Toxic Veterinary Care of Cattle. Dairy & Beef. By C. Edgar Sheaffer, V.M.D.

This well written book is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in sustainable agriculture, or who has or wants a holistic approach on their farm. This book is in depth with prescriptions and technical knowledge but written with the layman in mind.

It is easy to read and includes a Glossary, Index, Materia Medica, and a listing of common problems. The chapters include case studies from the many operations in which Dr. Sheaffer, V.M.D. visited. The case studies give specific treatments that were helpful to those herds, and that could be used in your herd. As stated in the book Dr. Sheaffer wrote this book out of his experience with conventional and homeopathic medicines to provide a low cost alternative to the farmer. This 206 page soft cover book is available from Bio-Ag’s Head Office and costs $35.00 + GST.

To sum up this report I will quote Veterinarian Edgar Sheaffer from his book "Human beings have been farming since the time of Adam; it is only the last 50 or so years that agriculture has been controlled by chemicals. Most, if not all of the chemicals (that some hold so dear), will fail us. Most of the antibiotics are now failing us every day." (Sheaffer, pg. 58)

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