Town Hall Seattle Science Series

Year after year, the quality of the world’s agricultural soil is degrading, which deeply impacts the quality and quantity of the food that we grow. Further, there’s a clear link between the health of our soil and the health of humans. What does that mean for us? Eventually we’ll face an existential crisis of the world’s food supply and our health. Fortunately, experts are studying how to improve our outlook, and two of them happen to live in Seattle. David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé believe that the roots of good health start on farms. In their latest book, What Your Food Ate, this local pair provided evidence from recent and forgotten science to illustrate how the health of the soil ripples through to crops, livestock, and ultimately us. They traced the links between crops and soil life that nourish one another, which in turn provide our bodies with the nutrients needed to protect us from pathogens and chronic ailments. Unfortunately, conventional agricultural practices hurt these vital partnerships and af