Charlotte Vallaeys
Farm and Food Policy Director
In her recent book, Farmacology, physician Daphne Miller explores how the guiding principles of the sustainable farming movement should be applied to health and healing in the doctor’s office.
In every chapter, Dr. Miller, a practicing physician and professor of family medicine, features a sustainable farm and one (or two) of her patients. She approaches the health problems of her patients, for whom reductionist, traditional medical interventions have been unsuccessful, with the philosophical perspective of a sustainable and ecologically minded farmer.
Her take-away message: in the same way that reductionist thinking on conventional farms slowly deteriorates the health of the soil and ecosystem, reductionist thinking in doctor’s offices does little to promote true health in individuals. A farm is more than the sum of its parts, and the same concepts apply to human health.
Dr. Miller makes the case beautifully, in a fascinating and informative read.
