Forerunners are people who walk the path that is revealed by the light they receive.
In our first column about forerunners we introduced some of their characteristics and personality traits. Although they may come from many different domains within our society, they have a few common character qualities. They passionately and tenaciously pursue something they see that doesn’t exist in the present and they are motivated by the challenge to overcome the problems that stand between them and making their dream a reality. For a forerunner, following the vision is everything.
When Murray Bast took over the management of the family farm in Wellesley from his father, he had a lot of ideas about how to do things better, but very little experience. It took just three years for him to prove that “good” ideas don’t always work. His herd was sick and so was his land. His ideas obviously needed some adjustment. Although the situation was serious, it didn’t destroy him. It became the “oyster’s sand” which propelled him into an area which would become his life’s work. What looked like a disaster was, in hindsight, the single most important event in his working career.
“We ultimately are the Earth. So if we dump poison on the Earth, we’re dumping poison on our livestock and we’re eating it in (our) meat, milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables.” M.B.
What Murray discovered in the early 1980′s was that there were a lot of things he didn’t know about how his farm worked. He learned that it was a micro culture of the Earth and that his soil, his crops and his livestock were delicately interconnected. He discovered that what he was doing to his soil, he was doing to his plants and ultimately his animals – an idea which wasn’t held by mainstream science at the time and often considered the leverage of kooks and “snake oil” salesmen. He learned that there were solutions to his problems and better alternatives to the drugs and chemicals which were commonly being used. The problem was that there were few suppliers of the products he needed and most of them were not specifically formulated for his requirements.
Murray reckoned that the new things he was learning would quickly be embraced by other farmers and they, too, would want and need products that increased the health of the soil, plants and livestock of their farms. He believed that he could meet those needs by developing products which would make it easy for farmers to choose this alternative. He was wrong. Most farmers were unimpressed by the first hand stories of the success others were having using these alternative methods of soil, crop and livestock management. These facts seemed less important to them than the slick advertising campaigns of the large chemical companies. Resources seemed more important than results. Murray Bast’s Bio Ag company would prove to be so ahead of its time that only other forerunners could see the value he saw in what he was doing. Twenty-six years ago, his primary work was educating farmers about the benefits of non-chemical farming. His opponents, however, had advertising agencies and multi-million dollar campaigns to convince the public and farmers otherwise. That didn’t stop Murray. He believed he was right and that eventually people would discover what he had discovered and join him. And he was right!
Bio Ag was slowly building a community of “believers” in the alternative approach to farming. Their customer base was expanding, but Murray wasn’t content to coast because he had a new vision. He had read about keylates and their role in the absorption of nutrients in the digestive system and he wondered if they could assist in providing better nutrition for livestock. It took some time but eventually they found a way to produce a highly effective keylate which would significantly increase the absorption of minerals in the intestine of his test animals. The result was stronger healthier animals. Over the next 2 decades the Bio Ag innovation and development of the use of keylates became a widely used and effective product which has since been copied by most of his competition.
“There is still so much that can be done.” M.B.
Murray also became a leader, educator and innovator in the development and use of homeopathic medicines for the treatment of livestock. Many of the systems he and his team developed have become widely used in organic farming. He has also researched and tested natural products that bolster the immune system to fight cancer and other diseases and is currently working on a non-chemical, anti-bacterial product which will be the foundation for an array of products which will provide many benefits never before available to people world-wide. Although Bio Ag tried to get the government’s support for their research and product development, they have had to fund all of it themselves; however, recently the Chinese have recognized the value of their work and have offered their assistance. Forerunners are rarely recognized at home.
True greatness isn’t measured in life by what a person takes for themselves, but by what they leave behind for others.
Murray Bast has paid a huge price to follow his dream. His journey has been a struggle to discover, educate and overcome unbelief, ignorance and overt opposition. The very fact that he has survived is an inspiration to those who choose the alternate path. His survival and the discoveries he has made are a foundation on which others will build. They are pieces in a mosaic which makes up the future for the next generation. He has played a significant role in the development of natural medicines, nutrition and organic farming world-wide. In the short-sight, the significance of Murray Bast’s contributions is not completely seen, but eventually history will reveal his role as a forerunner in the development of environmentally friendly farming.
For an audio interview with Murray Bast visit: www.wisdom-radio.com
Originally Published in the New Hamburg Independent and other newspapers.
