The Food is Medicine Project Puts Abundance Theory To The Test

Did you believe that the universe is infinite?  Can we as human beings manifest a better world by harnessing an abundance of cosmic power?  What would it take to prove to you that the universe does truly conspire in your favor?  With pure intentions and open minds, we have, in a way, set out on a spiritual pilgrimage, putting our hopes and dreams out into the world.  If they are deemed worthy we will be successful.  If we are unsuccessful, we shall be gently redirected to the path we are meant to follow.  Time will tell.

We at The Food is Medicine Project believe in the healing power of food. We believe that food can heal the body, the mind, the soul, and the spirit. We believe that food is a gift from the divine maternal spirit of the planet, and that by learning about our connection to the Earth through our food, we heal ourselves, creating more space for love, joy, compassion, and gratitude.

If you're interested in making a contribution, please check out our campaign page at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sustainable-farm-holistic-retreat-center#/story, or our website at foodmedicineproject.com! Thank you so much for your consideration!

About this Campaign

The purpose of this campaign is to raise funds which will be used for purchasing acreage in the greater Winston Salem area and developing the infrastructure needed for an operational retreat center. The retreat center will be a resilient, self-sustaining property designed in accordance with permaculture principles, and with an emphasis on physical, emotional and spiritual healing. A few farm activities and retreat topics we're expecting include permaculture design, natural buildings, biofuels, solar harvesting, hydroelectric and wind power generation, earthworks, grafting and tree propagation, vegetable production, bee keeping, meat production, food forestry, silvo-pasturing, coppicing, seed saving, seed germination, husbandry, cheese making, composting, vermiculture, aquaponics, soil remediation, mushroom cultivation, medicinal herb cultivation, essential oil distillation, aromatherapy, yoga, meditation, Reiki, energy healing, qi gong, acupuncture, massage therapy, juice therapy, music therapy, nature therapy, probiotics, traditional Chinese medicine, and biodynamics. Retreat topics will be non-sectarian. We hope to host our first retreat in September, 2016.

At this time we recognize that now more than ever, it's absolutely necessary for our human society to reestablish the connection to our food. Our goal is to become stewards of the Earth and to reach out and connect with our fellow suffering humans. This idea, The Food is Medicine Project, creates a bridge that can lead to balance, at the individual level, but also at the societal level, and even for the entire species. Proper diet and nutrient intake are crucial to wellness. Wellness is crucial to happiness. Happiness is the stuff that makes life worthwhile. 

Who We Are

The Food is Medicine Project is an idea that the foods we put into our bodies can be highly effective medicines for treating a vast majority of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual diseases currently plaguing the human population. We recognize these illnesses as being a major obstacle preventing many of our human brothers and sisters from leading fulfilling lives. We believe that Hippocrates' notion to "let food be our medicine and medicine be our food" is a crucial piece of the puzzle as to why, when our technological and intellectual abilities are more developed than ever, our basic wellness is in its worst decline. From the perspective of this philosophy it's evident that part of the problem is our disconnection from the natural systems than sustain our existence. We have forgotten that food is medicine, but we can remember, and we hope to help individuals in their personal healing processes through service and education.

Now more than ever our food is at the focus of many controversies. Somewhere under the heap of arguments about vegetarianism, the omnivore's dilemma, large scale industrial farming, GMOs, organic, labeling laws, free trade, high fructose corn syrup, cattle industry standards, poultry industry standards, the FDA, the raw milk controversy, celiac disease and a plethora of other food allergies and intolerances, there is a forgotten philosophy. At the root of these issues is the forgotten concept that food is more than just fuel, eating is more than just a habitual activity, and that meals are more than just an opportunity to gather and socialize. 

Why We Chose Crowd Funding

Since it's our philosophy that we are all irrefutably connected, we are excited to participate in the crowd funding. No other economic medium has ever existed that makes it so easy for us to spread our love and energy to so many others as efficiently. The potential to connect to millions of individuals who may be interested in supporting your cause is nothing short of magic. It reinforces part of our philosophy that there is an abundance of love and universal support for people when they're pursuing their personal legends. There are many projects out there that we at The Food is Medicine Project support and wish to see succeed, and we support many of them financially by making small pledges. In honesty and vulnerability, we cannot downplay the discomfort experienced by the ego when campaigning for funds from family, friends and strangers. It is uncomfortable to pull back the curtain, show the world your dreams and ask for their support. But in our desires to be connected, to heal the gap of separation between our individual selves and our human brothers and sisters, we support this economic bridge called crowd funding and are grateful for the opportunity to participate. "The hand that is open to give is also open to receive." May we give and receive freely with ever accumulating love and respect for each other, our dreams and our projects.

More About The Food Is Medicine Project

The word Medicine comes from the Latin nouns 'medi', meaning "middle, center, or balance point," and 'cinus', meaning "ruin, destruction, or chaos." The word Medicine actually translates "to bring balance to that which was once in ruin," or "to return to balance that which has fallen into chaos." Our philosophy is that Food IS Medicine! We believe that food is one of the most fundamental ways to restore balance to our chaotic lives, and our goal is to share the things we have learned about the healing power of eating with a holistic perspective!

The relationship between our bodies and our food is fundamental, yet very complex, and we believe that each person's specific needs are very different. For example, some people might benefit from a vegan diet, while for others a vegan diet may lack the nutritional content for the body and/or mind to operate optimally. The primary mission of The Food is Medicine Project to encourage individuals toward self-discovery, to help individuals to understand how the food they eat affects their specific biology and physiology. We believe that many illnesses, physical and mental, either have their root origins in, or can be addressed by, making adjustments in the diet. We have personally discovered that our own physical and mental well-being at any given time is most affected by the quality of our last few meals. A comprehensive process of discovery should be very scientific and should take into account a person's intuitions about their own dietary needs, as only an individual can be fully aware of how his or her body is being affected. Only through an ongoing process of procedure and observation can a person discern their own bio-specificity, and by extension, optimal physical and mental performance.

The Food is Medicine Project was launched earlier this year in March and has hit the ground running with an innovative, non-dogmatic approach to wellness. The main operations of our center will be hosting retreats, farm-to-table dinners and other forms of agritourism. The center will also create or participate in an existing CSA program so that our medicinal foods can be widely distributed into the community. Over time we will implement efficient resource management programs like solar power generation and water recycling in order to become more resilient and sustainable. We would also like to support, introduce or participate in urban permaculture efforts in the Winston-Salem community. 

If you're interested in making a contribution, please check out our campaign page at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sustainable-farm-holistic-retreat-center#/story, or our website at foodmedicineproject.com! Thank you so much for your consideration!

Other Ways You Can Help

If you are unable or uninterested in making a financial contribution but are passionate about our cause, there are plenty of other ways to help:

• Help us spread the word and make some noise about The Food is Medicine Project and our campaign! There are some great social media sharing tools on this page!
• Visit our web site and sign up for our monthly newsletter! Both contain a wealth of recipes and information about medicinal foods!
• E-mail us with your questions, ideas, suggestions, and feedback! We are here to be part of community and we would love you make your acquaintance.
• Consider volunteering with us in the future! We're going to need all the extra hands we can find to develop our envisioned facility! We to hope to take on WWOOFers as early as March, 2016!
• Are you a holistic or alternative medicine practitioner? Are you an instructor for permaculture design or other regrarian technique? Contact us about collaborating on a retreat when the center is operational!

Clarifying Vocabulary: Breaking The Ice On Spirituality And Holism

Hi, and thank you so much for visiting our blog!  We are very excited to be kicking off this project!  


In this blog post I want to address a couple of terms that almost always cause friction when they come up.  Sometimes it’s hard for me to talk about my food perspective without using the terms “spiritual” or “holistic”, so I thought that our first blog post might be a good opportunity to break the ice and put forth very specific definitions about what I mean when I use them.

Regardless of your traditional religious beliefs, in order to even peek down into the Food is Medicine rabbit hole, there is one concept that it is necessary to entertain: there is a spiritual component to this fascinating little planet we live on, and that we are intrinsically and spiritually connected to her.  Aristotle is quoted as saying, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”  We find that there are many folks out there that find it impossible to believe that the planet Earth embodies a spiritual essence, so we only ask that you entertain the idea while considering this information.

“The subject with which we are concerned is the spirituality of the earth. By this I do not mean a spirituality that is directed toward an appreciation of the earth. I speak of the earth as subject, not as object. I am concerned with the maternal principle out of which we were born and whence we derive all that we are and all that we have. In our totality we are born of the earth. We are earthlings. The earth is our origin, our nourishment, our support, our guide. Our spirituality itself is earth-derived. If there is no spirituality in the earth, then there is no spirituality in ourselves. The human and the earth are totally implicated each in the other.” – Thomas Berry

Every resource we have comes from this planet.  And this planet feeds every form of life that lives here.  She has always provided all the resources that we needed.  In our fear and confusion coming out of the dark ages, we were so intent on advancing our intellects and mastery over the physical world that we forgot our connection to the planet.  This philosophy is all encompassing and can be applied to many aspects in varying degrees to a person’s life.  But we’re just talking about food.  For now.  ;) 

So let’s talk about holism and our holistic approach.  The words ‘holistic’ and ‘holism’ often get misconstrued as being related to the words ‘holy’ and ‘holiness.’

Wikipedia says: “holism” is derived from the Greek ‘ὅλος holos’ meaning "all, whole, or entire," is the idea that natural systems (physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic, etc.) and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not as collections of parts. This often includes the view that systems function as wholes and that their functioning cannot be fully understood solely in terms of their component parts.

So for us, ‘holistic’ simply translates to whole systems thinking about food and eating.  This way of thinking asks that you consider all the aspects of your life that are directly (and yes, indirectly) affected by food.  This includes everything that falls into the categories of health, wealth and social; mind, body, spirit and soul. 

The goal of The Food is Medicine Project is to provide service and education about how to make holistic decisions regarding food.  Here are a few ways we’re planning to do it:  hosting informative and delicious dinner events, publishing cookbooks that aren’t just cookbooks, keeping an active blog about our travels, research, events and community service projects, and by simply practicing this information, holding space for its wisdom.

Again, we thank everyone for their support! 

-SB

To find out more about The Food is Medicine Project visit our website at foodmedicineproject.com.