The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health
The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health

Author: David R. Montgomery

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2015-11-16

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0393244415

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"Sure to become a game-changing guide to the future of good food and healthy landscapes." —Dan Barber, chef and author of The Third Plate Prepare to set aside what you think you know about yourself and microbes. The Hidden Half of Nature reveals why good health—for people and for plants—depends on Earth’s smallest creatures. Restoring life to their barren yard and recovering from a health crisis, David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé discover astounding parallels between the botanical world and our own bodies. From garden to gut, they show why cultivating beneficial microbiomes holds the key to transforming agriculture and medicine.

The Hidden Half of Nature
The Hidden Half of Nature

Author: David R Montgomery

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2016-11-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0393353370

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"Sure to become a game-changing guide to the future of good food and healthy landscapes." —Dan Barber, chef and author of The Third Plate Prepare to set aside what you think you know about yourself and microbes. The Hidden Half of Nature reveals why good health—for people and for plants—depends on Earth’s smallest creatures. Restoring life to their barren yard and recovering from a health crisis, David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé discover astounding parallels between the botanical world and our own bodies. From garden to gut, they show why cultivating beneficial microbiomes holds the key to transforming agriculture and medicine.

Subtle Agroecologies
Subtle Agroecologies

Author: Julia Wright

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2021-06-29

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0429804512

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This book is about the invisible or subtle nature of food and farming, and also about the nature of existence. Everything that we know (and do not know) about the physical world has a subtle counterpart which has been scarcely considered in modernist farming practice and research. If you think this book isn’t for you, if it appears more important to attend to the pressing physical challenges the world is facing before having the luxury of turning to such subtleties, then think again. For it could be precisely this worldview – the one prioritises the physical-material dimension of reality - that helped get us into this situation in the first place. Perhaps we need a different worldview to get us out? This book makes a foundational contribution to the discipline of Subtle Agroecologies, a nexus of indigenous epistemologies, multidisciplinary advances in wave-based and ethereal studies, and the science of sustainable agriculture. Not a farming system in itself, Subtle Agroecologies superimposes a non-material dimension upon existing, materially-based agroecological farming systems. Bringing together 43 authors from 12 countries and five continents, from the natural and social sciences as well as the arts and humanities, this multi-contributed book introduces the discipline, explaining its relevance and potential contribution to the field of Agroecology. Research into Subtle Agroecologies may be described as the systematic study of the nature of the invisible world as it relates to the practice of agriculture, and to do this through adapting and innovating with research methods, in particular with those of a more embodied nature, with the overall purpose of bringing and maintaining balance and harmony. Such research is an open-minded inquiry, its grounding being the lived experiences of humans working on, and with, the land over several thousand years to the present. By reclaiming and reinterpreting the perennial relationship between humans and nature, the implications would revolutionise agriculture, heralding a new wave of more sustainable farming techniques, changing our whole relationship with nature to one of real collaboration rather than control, and ultimately transforming ourselves.

The Hidden Half
The Hidden Half

Author: Michael Blastland

Publisher: Atlantic Books

Published: 2019-04-04

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1786496380

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Why does one smoker die of lung cancer but another live to 100? The answer is 'The Hidden Half' - those random, unknowable variables that mess up our attempts to comprehend the world. We humans are very clever creatures - but we're idiots about how clever we really are. In this entertaining and ingenious book, Blastland reveals how in our quest to make the world more understandable, we lose sight of how unexplainable it often is. The result - from GDP figures to medicine - is that experts know a lot less than they think. Filled with compelling stories from economics, genetics, business, and science, The Hidden Half is a warning that an explanation which works in one arena may not work in another. Entertaining and provocative, it will change how you view the world.

Dirt
Dirt

Author: David R. Montgomery

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2007-05-14

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 0520933168

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Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.

Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life
Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life

Author: David R. Montgomery

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2017-05-09

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0393608336

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Finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award "A call to action that underscores a common goal: to change the world from the ground up." —Dan Barber, author of The Third Plate For centuries, agricultural practices have eroded the soil that farming depends on, stripping it of the organic matter vital to its productivity. Now conventional agriculture is threatening disaster for the world’s growing population. In Growing a Revolution, geologist David R. Montgomery travels the world, meeting farmers at the forefront of an agricultural movement to restore soil health. From Kansas to Ghana, he sees why adopting the three tenets of conservation agriculture—ditching the plow, planting cover crops, and growing a diversity of crops—is the solution. When farmers restore fertility to the land, this helps feed the world, cool the planet, reduce pollution, and return profitability to family farms.

What Your Food Ate
What Your Food Ate

Author: David R. Montgomery

Publisher: W. W. Norton

Published: 2023-06-06

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781324052104

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David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé take us far beyond the well-worn adage to deliver a new truth: the roots of good health start on farms. What Your Food Ate marshals evidence from recent and forgotten science to illustrate how the health of the soil ripples through to that of crops, livestock, and ultimately us. The long-running partnerships through which crops and soil life nourish one another suffuse plant and animal foods in the human diet with an array of compounds and nutrients our bodies need to protect us from pathogens and chronic ailments. Unfortunately, conventional agricultural practices unravel these vital partnerships and thereby undercut our well-being. Can farmers and ranchers produce enough nutrient-dense food to feed us all? Can we have quality and quantity? With their trademark thoroughness and knack for integrating information across numerous scientific fields, Montgomery and Biklé chart the way forward. Navigating discoveries and epiphanies about the world beneath our feet, they reveal why regenerative farming practices hold the key to healing sick soil and untapped potential for improving human health. Humanity's hallmark endeavors of agriculture and medicine emerged from our understanding of the natural world--and still depend on it. Montgomery and Biklé eloquently update this fundamental reality and show us why what's good for the land is good for us, too. What Your Food Ate is a must-read for farmers, eaters, chefs, doctors, and anyone concerned with reversing the modern epidemic of chronic diseases and mitigating climate change.

Cut in Half
Cut in Half

Author: Mike Warren

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2018-10-09

Total Pages: 143

ISBN-13: 1452168741

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A science writer and a photographer explore the complicated inner workings of seeming simple everyday objects. What exactly is inside a laptop, a golf ball, a vacuum cleaner, or a novelty singing fish toy? The insides of these and dozens of other objects are revealed in this photographic exploration of the stuff all around us, exposed and explained. With the help of a high-pressure waterjet cutter able to slice through four inches of steel plate, designer and fabricator Mike Warren (creator of the popular Cut in Half YouTube channel) cuts into everything from boom boxes to boxing gloves, oil filters to seashells, describing and demystifying the inner workings and materials of each. With gorgeously detailed photography, Cut in Half is a fascinating and accessible popular science look at the extraordinary in the everyday. Praise for Cut in Half “If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like inside a hair dryer, or a baseball, or a Magic 8-ball, this book is for you. Mike Warren cuts things in half with a high-pressure waterjet cutter and then has an explanation of what you’re looking at inside. . . . One fun feature: the cover of the book itself is “cut in half” along the center.” —GeekDad “A book of mesmerizing photographs of objects that have been perfectly cut in half. . . . Accompanying each photograph are explanations from Warren, who has been doing this for years on his YouTube channel, that walk us through the amazing complexity of the many apparently simple objects.” —Fast Company “Let your device addict explore the fascinating inner workings of common household items with this book from gadget You Tuber Mike Warren.” —Real Simple

The Diet Myth
The Diet Myth

Author: Tim Spector

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2015-05-14

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0297609211

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Fully updated throughout and with a new foreword for this edition. Why do most diets fail? Why does one person eat a certain meal and gain weight, while another eating the same meal loses pounds? Why, despite all the advice about what to eat, are we all still getting fatter? The answers are much more surprising - and fascinating - than we've been led to believe. The key to health and weight loss lies not in the latest fad diet, nor even in the simple mantra of 'eat less, exercise more', but in the microbes already inside us. Drawing on the latest science and his own pioneering research, Professor Tim Spector demystifies the common misconceptions about fat, calories, vitamins and nutrients. Only by understanding what makes our own personal microbes tick can we overcome the confusion of modern nutrition, and achieve a healthy gut and a healthy body.

Outwitting the Devil
Outwitting the Devil

Author: Napoleon Hill

Publisher: Sharon Lechter

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 30

ISBN-13:

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Originally written in 1938 but never published due to its controversial nature, an insightful guide reveals the seven principles of good that will allow anyone to triumph over the obstacles that must be faced in reaching personal goals.