Ducks Vs. Chickens, Yaks Vs. Cows, Eating Locusts, Unique Permaculture Practices, Bible-Based Eating & More With Jordan Rubin.

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A few months ago, I was having dinner with my friend Jordan Rubin, and—between bits of my friend Andy Neale's MCT-infused-coconut milk, collagen superfood ice cream—Jordan fascinated me with stories of the crazy animals and superfoods he now grows on his farm, all in a sustainable and regenerative way that could feed a lot of people with very low acreage requirement.

So I just knew I had to get Jordan on the podcast to talk about his farm and his techniques.

After growing up in a health-focused household, Jordan attended Florida State University. But at age 19, a life-threatening case of Crohn’s disease struck. After losing 80 pounds, Jordan was just 104 pounds and ravaged by inflammation. (His doctors didn’t expect him to live much longer.) With conventional medicine utterly failing him, he turned to nutritional-based healing and began specifically studying Biblical references to nutritional health and lifestyle.

Making Bible-based diet adjustments, unlocking the power of fermented food, and utilizing probiotic supplementation teeming with soil-based organisms, Jordan turned his health around and healed himself of Crohn’s disease in weeks. Fast forward years later to 1999, and he and his wife, Nicki, founded Garden of Life, which quickly grew into an award-winning retail powerhouse nutrition company.

Jordan is now one of America’s most-recognized and respected natural health experts and is the New York Times bestselling author of The Maker’s Diet and 26 additional titles, including his latest work, Essential Fasting. An eco-entrepreneur, author, and lecturer on health and nutrition, Jordan has shared a message of health and hope across the globe for the last 22 years. In addition to co-founding Garden of Life, Jordan founded Beyond Organic, a vertically integrated organic food, beverage, and dietary supplement manufacturer. Jordan has formulated hundreds of dietary supplements, functional foods, and beverages—including many #1 top sellers in the Healthy Foods channel.

In 2016, along with co-founder Dr. Josh Axe, Jordan launched Ancient Nutrition, a company that brings the principles of ancient nutrition to the modern world. Jordan is also the founder of Heal the Planet Farm, a regenerative permaculture retreat located in Missouri’s Ozark mountains within the four-thousand-acre Beyond Organic Ranch. Jordan and his beautiful wife Nicki are the parents of six wonderful children.

During this discussion, you'll discover:

-Why Jordan prefers to eat yak and water buffalo over cow…9:30

  • Jordan wants to provide food that is helpful, sustainable, etc. and end certain diseases
  • Do things on a small scale (kind of a paradox considering how Jordan is known in his circles)
  • Water buffalo meat is higher in many essential vitamins and minerals
  • Lower fat

-Key differences in water buffalo milk from cow milk…15:00

-Why duck eggs over chicken eggs…21:00

  • Albumin (white) is much thicker in a duck egg
  • Greater proportion of yolk to white
  • Duck eggs contain 8x the vitamin B12 (highly bioavailable) than chicken eggs
  • 3x more cholesterol in duck eggs
  • Trace amounts of testosterone in egg yolk
  • 35 raw eggs have same effect as Dianabol (bodybuilding testosterone)

-How these types of foods can be available to the masses…26:10

-Fun facts on raising ducks…31:30

  • Not completely necessary to own a body of water
  • Possible to live in a greenhouse
  • They coexist with chickens
  • Guinea fowl (the chickens of Africa); great for pest control; eats ticks

-Pros and cons of camel milk…36:45

  • Desert Farms camel milk
  • Lower amount of milk produced
  • High maintenance animals
  • Long gestation (2 births in 3 years)
  • Much thinner than other animals' milk, but loaded with naturally occurring immunoglobulin and lactoferrin; sequesters iron to keep it away from microbes growing
  • Very expensive
  • Very good for the gut biome

-Superfoods Jordan is raising on his farm in Tennessee…39:00

  • Jordan was raised in a concrete jungle
  • Annual plants (kale, carrots, etc.) can be very disruptive to the environment
    • Plant each year from seeds or from propagated cutting; constantly disturbing topsoil
  • Perennial plants are the answer to our environmental and physical health issues
    • Plant once and they live for years
  • Garden of Eden was a “perennial food forest”
  • Genesis 3:17: “Cursed will be the ground” – i.e. annual tilling, hard work
  • Perennial plants:

-Mixed species combined with rotational grazing…45:55

-Jordan's personal nutrition philosophy…55:25

-How perspectives on food consumption change with various epochs of time…1:01:30

-Resources for following what Jordan is up to…1:03:10

-And much more!


Click here for the full written transcript of this podcast episode.

Resources from this episode:

– Jordan Rubin:

– Podcasts:

– Books:

– Food And Supplements:

– Other Resources:

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Do you have questions, thoughts, or feedback for Jordan or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!

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6 thoughts on “Ducks Vs. Chickens, Yaks Vs. Cows, Eating Locusts, Unique Permaculture Practices, Bible-Based Eating & More With Jordan Rubin.

  1. Rachael Albanese says:

    Such a great and empowering podcast Ben & Jordan! I appreciate you both. I myself started raising backyard chickens and ducks (together) last May. They have separate coops for night, but share the same large run during the day. I prefer the duck eggs myself and now even more so knowing the nutritional punch they offer. I’m curious to know what either of you what you supplement (Food) your chickens & ducks with. I live in the colder northeast and supplement with Scratch & peck organic layer (soy & corn free) feed which gets quite expensive. I give them some organic herbs and green leafy veggies I purchase from the market along with grubs I occasionally purchase from Scratch & Peck. Any other recommendations on what to maybe grow for them and harvest for the winter months when there is not much in nature for them to forage for?? Thank you!
    Rachael

  2. Daniel says:

    Is water Buffalo and Bison the same thing? I thought it was American Bison but was unsure and thought I would ask for clarification and see if it is not the thoughts on American Bison?

  3. Mike says:

    I looked at the link about why raw milk is better then pasteurized milk. First it’s on the “Organic Consumer Association” website, so I wouldn’t consider this to be an unbiased, neutral source. Bacteria doesn’t “know” that the milk it’s infecting is organic or not, so I’d discard this as a reason. It was interesting that there are claims that some of the nutrients might be adversely affected. This is interesting and worth further investigation

    “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1993 through 2012, there were 127 outbreaks linked to raw milk or raw milk products like ice cream, soft cheese, or yogurt. They resulted in 1,909 illnesses and 144 hospitalizations. CDC points out that most foodborne illnesses are not a part of recognized outbreaks, and for every illness reported, many others occur.”

  4. Mike says:

    “Bible-Based Eating ” Really?

    The next time my wife asks me “What would you like for dinner?”

    I”ll give her a wise and prophetic look, pause, and say, “What would Jesus eat?”

  5. Chad Cooper says:

    I really enjoyed listening to you guys and your passion, however, I really feel that you are missing some important aspects of Ecology. The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function according to the physicist Al Barlett. Society is based on growth, positive feedback, and we are reaching limits to growth quickly ( collapse) . Understanding Energy,matter, ecology, evolution, and physiology will better inform his practices to solve food issues for humanity. I hope you are keeping the idea of growth in part of your equation. Do you really think you will be able to feed humanity in a growth based system? The permaculture stuff is great, and it may be a part of the solution. I really hope it works out. Thanks Jordan for your work and Good Luck!

  6. Ben S. says:

    Great podcast, I love buffalo, water buffalo, and even the occasional yak!

    If anyone wants to be strict about this, most of what gets called “yak” is a crossbreed with cattle etc. These are called dzo (male) or dzomo (female) in Tibetan. True yak really struggle below 10,000 ft or actually above mid-50’s F. Have got schooled on this on a lot of long treks in Tibet and other parts of the Himalayas.

    So if you’re buying yak anything here in the US it’s probably dzo – since like Jordan said they don’t really do well outside very high mountains.

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