Future farmers and ‘medical pastures’

Sheep choose medical plantsThere is something called nutritional wisdom.

Sick sheep and other animals know what to eat to make themselves feel better. The knowledge of plant healing seems to be passed down through generations from mothers.

Australia research shows that as many as seventy shrubs, grasses and other perennials could be grown for sick sheep in medicinal paddocks where “we take them to self-medicate … or it could be that they need ongoing low-level intakes of certain plants to keep parasites at bay….”

Livestock with access to healing plants could lower the need for antibiotics.

Science Blog reports that plants are absorbing antibiotics from the soil. When fertilized with manure where antibiotics have been added to livestock feed, the ability of plants to absorb drugs raises the potential for contamination of human food supplies.

On another note, should we be spending more time playing in the dirt? A type of friendly bacteria found in soil may affect the brain in a similar way to antidepressants by activating brain cells to produce the brain chemical serotonin. [Medical News Today]