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Books helping organic grow: What Your Food Ate

In their latest book, David and Anne tackle the question scientifically: “Is my health affected not only by what I eat but by HOW it is produced?”

“David Montgomery has a knack for writing books that help the organic movement grow…” Read Linley’s letter about the soon-to-be-released What Your Food Ate discussion with David Montgomery in this week’s letter:

An image of the cover of "What Your Food Ate: How to heal our land and reclaim our health" by Anne Bikle and David Montgomery

Yellow box with black text that reads: "“Once again, what's good for the land is good for us too." ―  David Montgomery, What Your Food Ate, coming this week! Join us for the next Real Organic Bookclub, June 30, 6pm EDT with David Montgomery"

 

Dear Friend,

David Montgomery has a knack for writing books that help the organic movement grow.

He has a wonderful talent for taking a simple claim (like when your farmer says, “Healthy soils make healthy animals and healthy people”) and backing it with reams of peer-reviewed research and historical context.

In his first book, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations…

David brought us on an agricultural journey through time and taught us how we must avoid the mistakes of the past if we are to survive into the future. Just how many people can the earth support in perpetuity?

In The Hidden Half of Nature…

David Montgomery and Anne Bikle took us on a ride in their magic school bus to the rhizosphere so we could visualize how it resembles our gut turned inside out! They not only explored what foods bring us health, but explained why we should reframe the question to, “How do I foster a healthy microbiome?”

In Growing a Revolution…

David explored the ecological crises caused by agriculture and tells stories of the farmers showing us a better way. How do we shift our method of food production to one that is truly sustainable?

And now, in What Your Food Ate (published this week: June 21, 2022)…

David and Anne tackle the question scientifically:

  • “Is my health affected not only by what I eat but by HOW it is produced?”
  • “And if the answer is yes, how do we know this to be true?”

Fifty pages of peer-reviewed resources are synthesized, and David and Anne tell us we are just scratching the surface.

Two images side by side. On the left is a cover of "Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back To Life" by David R. Montgomery. On the right is a photo of David sitting outside in nature. Text below the images reads: "“Once again, what's good for the land is good for us too." ―  David Montgomery"

An illustration of two plants in soil with their roots showing. On the left is "Fertilizer On" and several roots are visible. On the left is "Soil Health Diet" and the plant is greener and has significantly more roots. Between them, it shows the plant on the right has more "good microbe metab's", more "micronutrients", and less "N, P, K" than the plant on the left.

Yellow box with black text that reads: ""We tend to think of diet-related ailments as arising from deficiencies in particular nutrients. Take scurvy, for example. If you start consuming vitamin C-rich citrus, scurvy clears right up, as British naval surgeon James Lind demonstrated in a famous 1749 medical trial aboard HMS Salisbury. Some cures are this simple, but curing other types of ailments and maintaining good health in the first place are far more complex. And on this point, the mix of foods in the human diet matters because phytochemicals, minerals, fats, and other compounds in food interact synergistically. And the fact that farming practices influence all of them leaves us with an unsettling question. How good, really, is modern agriculture for our health?" ― David Montgomery and Anne Bikle, What Your Food Ate"

A map of soil degradation all over the world. Red areas show "very degraded soil" and are prominant. Yellow indicates "Degraded soil" covers even more areas. "Stable soil" is mostly in arctic areas but several small areas in South America and Africa and Australia. "Without vegetation" is the least present. Text below reads "“It seems that the slower the emergency, the less motivated we are to do anything about it." "Homo sapiens, Wise Man indeed. There is still time to live up to our name if we stop treating our soil like dirt." ― David Montgomery"

If you are already a Real Friend, we thank you with this awesome opportunity to ask David Montgomery your questions on June 30, 6pm EDT. Your contribution supports our certification and educational programs.

If you have not joined us yet, now is the time. You will have so many opportunities to meet with wonderful minds such as David Montgomery in the coming months, including Vandana Shiva, Dan Barber, and Bob Quinn to name a few.

See you there,
Linley

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