Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Natural Defense: Enlisting Bugs and Germs to Protect Our Food and Health
    Unavailable
    Natural Defense: Enlisting Bugs and Germs to Protect Our Food and Health
    Unavailable
    Natural Defense: Enlisting Bugs and Germs to Protect Our Food and Health
    Ebook240 pages3 hours

    Natural Defense: Enlisting Bugs and Germs to Protect Our Food and Health

    By Emily Monosson

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    For more than a century, we have relied on chemical cures to keep our bodies free from disease and our farms free from bugs and weeds. We rarely consider human and agricultural health together, but both are based on the same ecology, and both are being threatened by organisms that have evolved to resist our antibiotics and pesticides. Patients suffer fromC.diff, a painful, potentially lethal gut infection associated with multiple rounds of antibiotics; orange groves rot from insect-borne bacteria; and the blight responsible for the Irish potato famine outmaneuvers fungicides. Our chemicals are failing us.

    Fortunately, scientists are finding new solutions that work with, rather than against, nature. Emily Monosson explores science's minnovative strategies, from high-tech gene editing to the ancipractice of fecal transplants. There are viruses that infect and bust apart bacteria; vaccines engineered to better provoke our natural defenses; and insect pheromones that throw crop-destroying moths into a misguided sexual frenzy. Some technologies will ultimately fizzle; others may hold the key to abundant food and unprecedented health. Each represents a growing understanding of how to employ ecology for our own protection.

    Monosson gives readers a peek into the fascinating and hopeful world of natural defenses. Her book is full of optimism, not simply for particular cures, but for a sustainable approach to human welfare that will benefit generations to come.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIsland Press
    Release dateJun 20, 2017
    ISBN9781610917209
    Unavailable
    Natural Defense: Enlisting Bugs and Germs to Protect Our Food and Health

    Read more from Emily Monosson

    Related to Natural Defense

    Related ebooks

    Biology For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Pine Trees And Fertility

      Feb 13, 2022

      “Weed it & weep” (February 12), on invasive plant pests, made sobering reading. It also highlighted the conundrum that makes pine trees both a blessing and a blight. They are a blessing because they provide a useful and valuable product while also ab

      7 min read

    • Article

      We Are What We Eat

      Oct 16, 2022

      I grew up in a farming environment where many people ate lots of meat (“Meat the challenge”, October 8). But my parents were not farmers and my father grew an abundance of vegetables. We ate a lot of fruit. We were healthy, fit and active. As I grew

      6 min read

    • Article

      Inconvenient Truths

      Jan 29, 2024

      Almost one adult in five uses alcohol to excess and inebriation remains a significant factor in violence, especially against women. As “Wine o’clock not” (January 27) reminds us, alcohol is a proven carcinogen and a major contributor to illnesses. Ex

      6 min read

    • Article

      Viewpoint

      Jul 7, 2023

      A wonderful friend bought a subscription to Psychologies for me for Christmas, after sharing articles from her copies for years. Reading the magazine more regularly has helped me in so many ways. Now, as a single mum struggling with an out-of-nowhere

      3 min read

    • Article

      My Climate Change Journey

      Jan 25, 2022

      My Climate Change Journey
      6 min read

    • Article

      On The Vine

      Aug 31, 2017

      On The Vine
      7 min read

    • Article

      On Climate Change And Health

      Jan 22, 2020

      On Climate Change And Health
      64 min read

    • Article

      Prevention Better Still

      Feb 20, 2022

      As a woman in her fifties, with a mother who died from breast cancer at 32, I have been grateful to receive funded annual mammograms since my early thirties (although when I turned 50, these reduced to the biennial schedule). For a few years now, rad

      7 min read

    • Article

      Podcast: Is It Over?

      Jun 11, 2021

      Podcast: Is It Over?
      6 min read

    • Article

      Living With Meaning

      Jul 31, 2022

      Living With Meaning
      7 min read

    • Article

      Opinion: A Community-guided Genome Editing Project Can Fight Lyme Disease

      Aug 22, 2019

      Even if there are differences of opinion about genetically engineering Lyme-resistant mice, ensuring that ecological engineering proposals start small and invite community guidance is a project everyone can support.

      4 min read

    • Article

      “How Can We Create A More Sustainable Future For The Planet?”

      Oct 6, 2020

      This question has been playing on my mind as we edge into a ‘new normal’ after lockdown. This year has been tough, but we also have much to learn from it. Think back to spring: we were walking and cycling more and working from home meant we drove our

      2 min read

    • Article

      Your Feedback

      Feb 22, 2024

      Dear Sheryn, A while back, OrganicNZ published articles about smart meters and wireless radiation which alerted me to the dangers, helped me protect my health and led me to become involved in Safe ICT NZ (Safe Information and Communications Technolog

      5 min read

    • Article

      READ & WATCH

      Jan 31, 2021

      BY NIGEL PALMER (CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING 2020) Review by Emily Stokes He had me at Ferments. Maybe Regenerative, or Mineral and Biological Extracts, and possibly Locally Sourced. It was a combination of the entire title that captured my regenerative

      3 min read

    • Article

      Building And Planting

      May 23, 2021

      Alan Bollard’s accounting of this country’s infrastructure problems does not invite much argument (“Digging deep”, May 22). The solutions are all built on vastly increasing New Zealand’s population to generate enough economic activity to pay for it a

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Restorative Power Of Nature

      Aug 20, 2020

      The Restorative Power Of Nature
      6 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: It’s Time To Stop The ‘Insect Apocalypse’

      Jun 29, 2023

      I was reading about bumble bees recently — specifically, their looming demise, thanks to human greed and ignorance — and started thinking about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We should have eaten from it! Well, we did, but then apparentl

      3 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: It’s Time To Stop The ‘Insect Apocalypse’

      Jul 19, 2023

      I was reading about bumble bees recently — specifically, their looming demise, thanks to human greed and ignorance — and started thinking about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We should have eaten from it! Well, we did, but then apparentl

      3 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Letter

      Apr 21, 2020

      This is the first time I have linked the “Director’s Letter” to the theme of the monograph. It was necessary. This issue began to take shape almost two months ago, at the end of January. At that time, China was facing an epidemic caused by a new coro

      6 min read

    • Article

      Entertainmint

      Aug 25, 2021

      Entertainmint
      3 min read

    • Article

      Have Your Say

      Jul 26, 2020

      Every issue of WDDTY contains an amazing amount of useful health information, so it would be good if more of us readers could share this around. After I’ve read it, I always lend my copy to a friend, and I tell others by email about some of the usefu

      3 min read

    • Article

      Will Tomson

      Mar 1, 2024

      Will Tomson
      2 min read

    Reviews for Natural Defense

    4/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      For every pathogen there is a phageHiding in plain sight all these years, the microbiome has been providing exciting new paths for discovery, wonderment, and amazement. Looking at the world with new eyes, we can (at last) see that the air, soil and water themselves contain microbiomes, with similarly impressive properties. Natural Defense is the latest addition to the burgeoning shelf of biomic revelations. This one is focused on practical application. It is all about how we can improve ourselves and save our planet from, well, us.The basic message is that Nature has it handled. We can do better learning from Nature than by creating poisonous chemical compounds by the tens of thousands. Monosson begins with the story of fecal transplants, suddenly in vogue in the West. They seem to cure a wide swath of otherwise unmanageable conditions. Sometimes overnight, after months of antibiotics have failed. The Chinese figured this out a thousand years ago. The FDA is still not convinced, but is tolerating it.Next up are phages, which target specific pathogens. If we figure out how phages and pathogens line up, we can have an endless cheap supply of tightly targeted miracle meds that have worked, by evolutionary design, for eons.We have begun trying some of this. We do use sex odors – pheromones, to confuse destructive moths. It saves spraying pesticides on fields, saving fruit crops from becoming worthless almost overnight. With pheromones, it is a matter of milligrams per acre, compared to carpet bombing with pesticides. For some reason, despite the evident, documented success, pheromone treatments have not made a big dent in the market, she says. As with anything in science, acceptance is problematic.Natural Defense is a most accessible, plainly written briefing on the state of our ignorance and the wonderful vistas opening up to us. As Monosson says in the Epilogue, each chapter could become its own book. Some of those books have been written, and many more are on the way. This is a fine, fast intro.David Wineberg