Graze or DIE!

Karen Hoffman of the Natural Resources Conservation Service shared this article with us in June of 2015. We're pretty sure change is as hard as it ever was. Here's why, and some additional thoughts about how you can get yourself to change. Over a year ago, a friend of mine who is interested in health and nutrition gave me an article entitled “Change or die”. Originally published in the May 2005 issue of Fast Company magazine, it was authored by Alan Deutschman, who has since written a book with the same title. The article was focused on how difficult it is for people to change their behavior, especially in terms of diet and exercise. For many reasons, I saw a direct parallel to animal agriculture. Let me explain. Research in health care has shown that when people are suffering from chronic and serious diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, they are quite often told that they can improve their health or save their lives by changing their lifestyle choices. Eat better, exercise more, stop smoking or drinking alcohol – and the reasons given for making those changes are quite often presented based on the facts that doing those things can make a difference. Yet most people do not change their lifestyle choices and behaviors when presented with the facts – facts are fairly uninspiring. The article states that 90% of coronary-artery bypass patients