{"id":36264,"date":"2020-02-12T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=36264"},"modified":"2020-01-30T15:06:15","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T21:06:15","slug":"the-hidden-half-of-nature-by-david-r-montgomery-and-anne-bikle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/the-hidden-half-of-nature-by-david-r-montgomery-and-anne-bikle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hidden Half of Nature by David R. Montgomery and Anne Bikle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>guest post by Laura V<\/em><\/p>\n

After reading Montgomery\u2019s most recent book, Growing a Revolution<\/em> followed by Josh Axe\u2019s Eat Dirt<\/em>, the parallels I had begun to see my separate explorations of regenerative agriculture and human gut health seemed to align beyond a shadow of doubt. Then I stumbled upon one of Montgomery\u2019s earlier books, The Hidden Half of Nature<\/strong><\/a>, <\/em>in which he explains the biological backgrounds and importance of the two similar systems.<\/p>\n

Montgomery and Bikle\u0301 go about transforming a backyard full of lifeless dirt into a thriving ecosystem, above and below ground. Through extreme composting, they mimic the natural buildup of soil via decaying matter on an accelerated time frame nature could never accomplish. It is when Bikle\u0301 finds herself stricken with cancer that the couple decides to fortify their gut microbiome with specific foods just as they \u201cfed\u201d their soil to provide a hospitable environment for good microbes. Dietary changes ensue and we get a biology lesson on the digestive system that probably no one learns in school\u2026yet.<\/p>\n

The biology lesson was interesting but I admit to my mind wandering a bit during those parts. I\u2019m not a scientist so I just need a broad picture of what I\u2019m learning, not so much the details. It was fun to learn about Lynn Margulis, a rebel biologist who in 1970 first hypothesized chloroplasts and mitochondria originated from ancient bacteria. The segment on the discovery of penicillin and other antibiotics was also amazing history.<\/p>\n

What I found most fascinating and frustrating is throughout the industrial revolution and rise of synthetic chemical fertilizers, there have always been scientists or farmers who have sounded warnings that went unheeded. These scientists or citizen scientists showed tests crops in which fertilizing with compost, crop rotation, and no-tilling yielded heartier and more nutritious plants. I think the hubris of the scientific age along with chemical companies\u2019 grip on agriculture has effectively buried all of these voices of reason under a field of increasingly useless dirt.<\/p>\n

The study of both soil and human microbiology is relatively new and exciting. It is terrible to learn the percentage of nutrients plants have lost since the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides in the pursuit of greater yields. It\u2019s no wonder people might have weight problems while eating large quantities of high calorie, low nutrient foods. On the flip side, people have lost their internal partners in nutrient absorption and natural defenders against bad germs due to the overuse of antibiotics.<\/p>\n

Ever since men began to see hidden life under a microscope, we\u2019ve been at war with pathogenic microbes, not understanding we\u2019ve also been killing the allies that have been helping us thrive for millennia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

guest post by Laura V After reading Montgomery\u2019s most recent book, Growing a Revolution followed by Josh Axe\u2019s Eat Dirt, the parallels I had begun to see my separate explorations of regenerative agriculture and human gut health seemed to align beyond a shadow of doubt. Then I stumbled upon one[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[5190,5191,5188,5189],"class_list":["post-36264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-agriculture","tag-gut-health","tag-microbes","tag-soil"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-9qU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36264"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36468,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36264\/revisions\/36468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}