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My Second Weston A. Price Wise Traditions Conference Experience, 2012

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This was my second time attending the Weston A. Price Wise Traditions conference, and what a gathering it was!

I watched many devoted and passionate people educating and interacting with each other, spreading the good news about health, nutrition, and well-being. It was awe inspiring to say the least.

This year I was privileged to be able to work at the Green Pasture Products booth for my good friends Dave and Barbara Wetzel. I have done work for this fantastic company in the past by producing content for their web site and product labels, and this year they asked if I would be interested in working at their conference booth. I was thrilled to have this opportunity and it was a great experience. It looks like I’ll be doing this next year too, in Atlanta for the 2013 conference.

Green Pasture Products fermented cod liver oil and other wholesome foods like ghee, coconut oil, and combo products are raw and as nutrient-dense as they come. As far as company integrity and reputation, Dave and Barbara are as genuine and honest as they come, and have made every possible effort to maintain a commitment to integrity and faithfulness of traditional foods eaten by people around the world for thousands and thousands of years.

Cod liver oil is the most potent and natural source of important fat-soluble vitamins A & D, which are actually hormones and essential to many aspects of health (especially brain, bone, digestion, and immunity). My family has been consuming cod liver oil for nearly 5 years and it has definitely been a boosting factor in our health.

Although I didn’t see as many lectures or spend as much time with various people as I wanted to, this conference experience was definitely as good or better than the first one I attended in Pennsylvania two years ago. I will also be purchasing some of the lectures I missed from Fleetwood Onsite conference recording.

One of the things I love about this conference is how much good will I see between conference attendees, willingness to help, and to support each other. It was a treat to see old friends I had already met from years before, or meet those friends I know from online social media.

I was so excited to get to meet for the first time Stanley and Keren Fishman and their son Alan from Tender Grassfed Meat.  I have been corresponding with them online for a year or two, and they are kind, generous and passionate folks whom I am so proud to call my friends.

I was also able to spend time with some of my other favorite people – Lisa Rose of Real Food Kosher, Annika Rockwell from Food For Kids Health (who is one of my clients), JeanMarie Todd of Kind Food Farm, and Alex Lewin from Feed Me Like You Mean It.

Please check out Alex’s gorgeous new book on fermentation, Real Food Fermentation.  I have my copy and will be doing a review of it soon. Also, I’d like to thank Alex for allowing me to use some of his photos in this post. Just before I left for the conference, I discovered my camera battery was dead, so I went to a store to buy another one and they apparently didn’t have batteries. I didn’t have time to go to another store to replace it, so I’m grateful for the photos since the camera on my phone takes very poor quality photos.

Here’s a picture of Lisa, Alex, JeanMarie and me at the awards dinner on Saturday night.

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The booth I worked at was just on the opposite side from Sandrine Love (Hahn) and Karen Hamilton-Roth from Nourishing Our Children. Here’s Sandrine and I. Isn’t she as cute as can be?

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I met many others including Tandy Batt of Natural Living, Courtney Polivka of The Polivka Family – a site devoted to information about real food, natural birthing, fertility, and natural living,  Aaron Zober of The Appropriate Omnivore, and Hannah Crum of Kombucha Camp.

I had met Scott Gryzbek from Zukay cultured vegetable dressings and juices last conference (in King of Prussia), but this year he asked for a picture, and I was happy to oblige.

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I also got to spend a little time visiting with Monica Ford of Real Food Devotee, and Maureen Diaz (one of my fellow Liberation Wellness friends) although not nearly enough.  🙂

Here are just a few speakers who presented at Wise Traditions this year:

Chris Masterjohn:

Chris is a brilliant researcher and lecturer on the topic of cholesterol and its essential role in human health. I’ve been fascinated by his research for several years, and I often reference his research when it comes to providing clients with information they need, or for writing I do on my own site. Nutritional Adjuncts to Fat Soluble Vitamins was the topic Chris covered in his presentation this year.

Chris was vegan for a number of years and he talks extensively on his site about the negative effects this lifestyle had on his health. He ate a lot of soy while on this diet, and it was to the detriment of his health. I highly recommend reading anything he has written or watching any of his lectures online or in person.

Chris Kresser:

A licensed acupuncturist and integrative medicine practitioner, Chris has made a name for himself in holistic health and has been associated with the Paleo diet and lifestyle by many who embrace this way of living. The topic of discussion was The Gut-Brain-Skin Axis: New Perspectives on an Old Idea.

Over the last 20 or so years, medical practitioners and researchers have become more and more interest in the link between skin problems and mental health.  Studies reveal that patients experiencing acne and other skin disorders have a higher risk of digestive distress such as IBS, acid reflux, constipation. Chris discussed this relationship and provided recommendations for nutritional applications to reverse these conditions and also to prevent issues from occurring.

Dr. Carolyn Dean:

Carolyn Dean is known for her work in the subject of magnesium deficiency and its affect on human health. Although I have read a great deal of her research, I still haven’t read her book The Magnesium Miracle (and I’m still planning to read it). She discussed how just about every major disease is somehow connected to magnesium deficiency – heart disease, autism, allergies, chronic fatigue, hormonal imbalance, auto-immune disorders, and more. This blew my mind when I learned it several years ago, and it continues to amaze me today.

Andrea Malmberg

Andrea was the keynote speaker at the awards dinner held on Saturday evening of the conference. Director of Savory Institute’s Research and Knowledge Management Initiative, Andrea educates about educates about the importance of preserving grasslands all over the world to maintain habitat and the ecology, with grazing animals, and how this practice is already been shown to restore the balance of our earth.

This topic is definitely not new to me, but I was so amazed at the images she showed on the slides of just how successful this practice really is – and how returning areas that have undergone desertification and deterioration of the land and soil integrity can benefit so greatly by returning it to a grassland state with grazing animals. The pictures were worth more than a thousand words, and this is happening all over the world in designated Savory land areas.

New to Weston A. Price?

This non-profit organization’s mission is to educate about the research of Dr. Weston A. Price which occurred during the 1930s all across the world. WAP’s intent is to instruct about nutrient-dense foods and their essential role in supporting human health. This organization is dedicated to education, research, and activism.  Some of the areas of emphasis include pasture-raised livestock, organic and biodynamic farming techniques community supported farms, accurate nutritional information and instruction, and honest and informative labeling of food and supplement products.

If you are interested in learning about nutrition and lifestyle changes that affect children, visit Nourishing Our Children for specific nutritional recommendations that support children’s health and growth and development.

If you have the opportunity to attend just one conference, this should be it!

What are traditional foods? 

Photo credits: Alex Lewin, Feed Me Like You Mean It and Scott Gryzbek, Zukay

8 replies on “My Second Weston A. Price Wise Traditions Conference Experience, 2012”

Hi Raine,
it was so nice spending time with you at the conference this year. I love how these conferences are turning into a kind of reunion with close friends.
Thanks for your summary on the conference – I’ve been enjoying reading everyone’s posts since it’s impossible to do everything at the conference!

Hi Lisa – I enjoyed this last weekend so much, and I’m really looking forward to next year already! They are indeed a reunion, I was just telling my husband how much I wish I lived closer to some of the people I only get to see once in awhile. I guess that makes the conference all that more special. Thanks for spending time with me this weekend, it was so great to see you. 🙂

Thanks for the summary of the talks. I just discovered WAPF this year and was thrilled to bits that they were having a conference in my own back yard. I summed up my experience for my readers too. They likely have not heard anything like it.

Best,
Amanda

Stanley – I know I missed some of the other “highlights” of the conference, but it’s impossible to cover it all, and I just talked about what was most important to me. I hope you and your family enjoyed your time there as much as I did. I cherish yours and Keren’s and Alan’s friendship too. Thanks, as always, for your comments.

Amanda – so glad you were able to attend this wonderful conference. I found that I really enjoyed it even more than the first one I attended in King of Prussia, PA two years ago. Keep sharing this great info with your readers, I’m so glad to hear about people who spread the word.

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