Don Pedro, The Ruminati and a New Pod, I Mean, SODcast

 

For those who don't know my background and what I'm trying to accomplish:

I’m trained as a forage agronomist and ruminant nutritionist. I received my Doctorate from the University of Kentucky in 1986 and I joined the faculty of Oregon State University as the Extension Forage Specialist. In 2007 I realized that I was an obese pre-diabetic. I am no longer either, thanks to several clinicians, researchers and authors. About a decade ago I started to attend and then speak at international conferences focused on therapeutic carbohydrate reduction and metabolic health.

I’ve gotten to learn a great deal about human nutrition and metabolic health while I’ve been on this health-restoration journey. I’ve come to appreciate the gaps that exists between science and policy, and between agricultural producers and the rest of society. To bridge these gaps, I’ve become an advocate for forage and ruminant animal agriculture, and the essential role of ruminant animal products in human health and flourishing.

About ten years ago I started blogging and posting on social media about what I called Grass Based Health (“Grass Roots Health” was already taken). It represented an integration of what I’ve learned – healthy soils, healthy plants, healthy animals, and healthy people, all of which depend on ruminant animal agriculture. It also reflected my previous belief in the superior nutritional quality of grass-fed livestock products. I no longer hold that position and the name reminds me of that lesson. (The fact that approximately 96% of what the global domesticated ruminant herd consumes is not human-edible plant material justifies calling ruminant animal agriculture “grass based.”)

The “Ruminati” grew out of the people who had seen my presentations or read my postings. It is my name for those people who understand to some degree some portion of the production-through-consumption landscape and the disciplines that serve it. I’ve been given the title of Don Pedro, aka the SodFather. While I’m absolutely serious about the essential role of animal source food in the human diet, and the unique advantages of ruminant animal agriculture in producing those foods, I believe that humor (at least what I think is humor) is helpful in building bridges.

The “Meet Your Herdmates” Sodcast is a new effort to introduce members of the Ruminati to each other, so that we might all learn from each other.

Episodes on YouTube

Episodes on PodBean. as well as Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, Pandora, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio and most other podcast sources (Please let me know in the comments if your favo(u)rite source doesn't list it.).

Thank you for your support as I scale the learning cliff of podcasting. Please feed that algorithm by liking, giving it a 5-star rating, and sharing. Let's grow the herd!

Released episodes to date:

On YouTube (video + audio)

1	Adele Hite, PhD	November 5th	LInk
2	Frédéric Leroy, PhD	November 10th	Link
3	Dr. Bret Scher, MD	November 12th	Link
4	Doug Reynolds	November 17th	Link
5	Vinnie Tortorich	November 19th	Link
6	Danny Vega	November 24th	Link
7	Yogi Parker	November 26th	Link
8	Dave Feldman	December 1st	Link
9	Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, MD	December 3rd	Link

Audio-only 

1	Adele Hite, PhD	November 5th	Link
2	Frédéric Leroy, PhD	November 10th	LInk
3	Dr. Bret Scher, MD	November 12th	Link
4	Doug Reynolds	November 17th	Link
5	Vinnie Tortorich	November 19th	Link
6	Danny Vega	November 24th	Link
7	Yogi Parker	November 26th	Link
8	Dave Feldman	December 1st	Link
9	Dr. Mark Cucuzzella	December 3rd	Link