“What does the practice of sustainable agriculture have to teach modern medicine? What are the links between soil health and the health of the people who eat from that soil?…A highly original and compelling work of exploration with large implications for our understanding of health.”
— Michael Pollen
“Dr. Miller’s wit, compassion, and willingness to learn from the people who take care of the land make this a vibrant and important book. It is about so much more than just personal well-being; it is about the health of our food, our farms and farmers-the entire planet.”
— Alice Waters
“In Farmacology, Daphne Miller expands the field of medicine from the classical boundaries of the symptom-cure concept toward a more complex and holistic approach that takes into account the tight balance between Man and Nature.”
— Carlo Petrini, founder of the International Slow Food Movement
“Miller’s journey begins in serendipity and remains alive to surprise…[The] web of associations…will surprise even those [who know] that healthy soils make for healthy people. It’s startling to think that few if any doctor-authors have attempted this hybrid of field work…patient case histories…and conversations with scientists.”
— Acres USA
“Farmacology…explains how sustainable farms serve as a model for a healthy human body…Soil is the star of this story. Its vigor is clearly connected to the vitality of the plants, animals, and human beings it supports…Think like a farmer, and you’ll likely cultivate better personal health.”
— Booklist
“Miller steps outside medicine’s orthodoxy to explore the connection between sustainable farming and healthy living…Working hands-on and also picking the brains of the farms’ operators, [she] observed farmers taking a holistic…approach…that she has found to be too often missing in the modern practice of medicine.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“An eloquent call for better systems of sustainable agriculture and humanistic health care. . . . lovely, touching, and sometimes quite funny. [Miller’s] insight: both soil and people do better when treated as complex systems, not fragments. This is a fresh, original, and utterly charming book.”
— Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at NYU and author of What to Eat
“[Here] explorer and integrative physician Daphne Miller learns the principles of best farming practices and considers their applicability to medicine. Her observations are revealing and inspiring, offering a vision of new and more effective treatments for a variety of human ailments, from allergies to cancer. A rewarding read.”
— Dr. Andrew Weil, author of 8 Weeks to Optimum Health and True Food
“Sustainable agriculture and holistic medical practice find each other as soul mates…The issues raised deal with profound economic, social and cultural dilemmas…and Miller’s hearty, personable writing style makes it a good read for travelers, lovers of character studies and medical and farming professionals alike.”
— Lou Fancher, Mercury News
“Some of Miller’s discoveries are simple, others groundbreaking, but all feel important for their medical implications as well as for what they can teach us about our connection to other living creatures… Miller… delves deep into the science, translating dense medical text into practical information.”
— Orion Magazine
“It’s alternative living in a big way, whether you’re the field, the cow, the cultivated insect, or the patient of a type of physician [Miller] calls “medical ecologists.” Miller had fun, writes exuberantly, and wants to infect us in the best way possible with the spirit of these places.”
— Harvard Medicine Magazine
“[Daphne Miller is] such a fearless, intelligent, and charming guide on the food-filled journey between medical and ecological sciences that by the end of Farmacology you won’t just think that medical ecology is fascinating–you’ll wonder how we managed to live without it for so long.”