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

Print version record.

Front Cover ; About Island Press ; Subscribe ; Title Page ; Copyright Page ; Contents ; Acknowledgements ; Introduction ; Chapter 1. Natural Allies: Our Bacterial Protectors ; Chapter 2. Natural Allies: Microbial Farmhands ; Chapter 3. The Enemy of Our Enemy Is Our Friend: Infecting the Infection ; Chapter 4. The Enemy of Our Enemy is Our Friend: Replacing Pesticides with Nature's Chemistry ; Chapter 5. Provocation: Disease-Resistant GMOs ; Chapter 6. Provocation: The Next Generation of Vaccines? ; Chapter 7. Know Thine Enemy: Images of Disease.

Chapter 8. Know Thine Enemy: The Future of Diagnostics Epilogue ; Notes ; Index ; IP Board of Directors.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"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 from C.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 most innovative strategies, from high-tech gene editing to the ancient practice 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."-- Publisher.

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