Any thoughts on the evolutionary implications of this? I've heard the DHA requirement used as an argument in favour of Elaine Morgan's Aquatic Ape hypothesis; do you think savannah living hunter gatherers would have been able to get enough of the stuff pre-dairy to support the evolution of large brains?

But while you can buy grass fed beef I have yet to come across grass fed cow cheese that is labelled as such.

So in theory what you are saying is true. But for most people high omega 3 cheese is not a real option. Again, I'd be happy to be proven wrong on this point because I much prefer cheese to fish.

Randall,

There are all sorts of suppliers and you can usually google up someone in your area, but in the age of ICT you can order from anywhere. One I'll mention is Bobolink Dairy of the Grasslands Cheese Consortium. I like Nina & Jonathan White's attitude and presentation. I've followed their progress on farmer mailing lists since they first began and wish them well. And, they have a Kerry bull named John which should count for something.

If you are more into the politics and advocacy end you might like to support American Farmland Trust's demonstration dairy at Cove Mt. Farm. Bryan Petrucci has been a staunch advocate and information warehouse for a number of years. It's not clear that they make cheese but Bryan would be glad to help you find a local supplier.

In general, artisanal cheeses will be made from grass fed milk, often unpasteurized and often certified organic just to allow a further price premium if nothing else. Think slow food.

Where are you? I'll google up a local supplier if you'd like.

Oliver,

I'll think about it and do some reading. Maybe I can avoid too much rootless bloviation:-)

I haven't paid a lot of attention to the subject, but some things that come readily to mind are that all wild ruminant meat is comparatively high in DHA, but not all fish is similarly high. It is only a few oily fishes, usually predators, that concentrate it. It's not clear that the average DHA levels of fishing folks would be higher than for hunting folks. If they could get a reliable diet of selected predators they would do better. Salmon and trout tribes would do well for example if they could preserve the seasonal catch.

I can't quite see an evolutionary angle to DHA consumption other than that consumption could confer some competitive advantage on fishing tribes. I can't quite see a mechanism, a ratchet, that would tie consumption to bigger brains within that breeding population. It seems it might support inter-group dominance - fish people outsmarting and outcompeteing hunting people - but there's no specific selection for bigger brains.

Maybe someone has already thought this through? I'll look about.

(later)

Another thought. Since DHA consumption is claimed to help keep old folks sharp and in better physical health the crone hypothesis might come into play. Hale and hearty crones would help fecund young women raise more children to maturity. There's so specific brain issue here but again, DHA consuming tribes might have an advantage.

Well, I studied the aquatic ape idea a little more. It seems that the DHA part is based on a misconception that DHA is rare in savannah biomes. It's true that land plants have LNA instead of DHA, but all animals convert LNA to DHA.

It's a tricky business that depends on other vitamins and minerals, and is further confused by intestinal flora which digest some of the LNA into other compounds. Conversion percentages can be low. Still, with a good diet all animals, including humans, get DHA from LNA conversion. Big brained humans benefit from eating some of those other animals which have so patiently concentrated DHA. If you don't eat animals or animal products you might need to take some extra steps to seek DHA from supplements.

The problems with DHA for most people seem to be related to modern diets which are low in whole foods but high in processed foods as well as often being deficient in the vitamins and minerals needed for LNA conversion. That's one claim at least. I suspect that the historic record of stunted, dull witted subsistence farmers is evidence that bad diet is not a particularly modern invention.

Good diet seems to be the simple answer. Eating whole foods, especially whole grains and leafy veggies etc., and avoiding the dreaded vegetable oils except for olive oil are a good basis.

Using butter instead of margarine (for many reasons) is good but grass fed butter is better. Same for cheeses and meats. If you have access to safe sea foods that's great since the marine food chain stands on algae which does have DHA. The higher up that food chain you eat the higher the concentrations of DHA.

There are even DHA supplements made directly from marine algae. Algae is also used as a feed additive for livestock sometimes. Evidently there are some issues with heat and air ruining the DHA, so you may not be getting what you think you are when consuming supplements, but the principle is good.

All in all it seems increasingly doubtful that DHA needs special attention. If you are doing all the other diet related optimizations you probably ought to be doing as part of owning and operating a potentially immortal (or at least immorbid) body, then you'll be getting your RDI of DHA. If you are screwing up on the general plan then DHA is just one of your problems. Certain diseases such as diabetes are a consideration, but if you are sick it's no surprise that you may need to be extra dilgent about your diet.

The possibly mythical noble savannah savage, tall and straight and healthy, would have gotten all the DHA needed from hunting and gardening/gathering. The mythical noble urban savage of today can do even better, even without great wealth or access to sea food.

How far are we from being able to synthesize lipids that complex?

That's a tricky question. In a sense we already do so using biological synthesizers. We grow various bacteria and algae, sometimes hacking them for our purposes, which produce lipids we value for industrial purposes.

Perhaps you mean chemical synthesis but even then it seems that we can mimic biological chemistry to build lipids though at greater cost than simply growing critters in boxes.

Perhaps you mean synthetic biological production where we construct genomes from bio-bricks to catalyze reactions and produce stuff? That's kind of sort of here now, at least in the very early stages.

Perhaps you mean synthesize in the nano-tech sense, conucopia machines that produce whatever driven by software recipies? Not soon it seems to me but someday.