A Conversation About Agriculture’s Role in Human Health

Daphne Miller, Author, Farmacology

Took time off from work as a doctor to work on a biodynamic farm.

The mantra of ‘test and replace’ was not working in my practice.

I had to ask ‘What would nature do?’

I had to think about health in this way.

Soil as vitamin

Check the photos – especially the nutritional comparison between eggs!

Soil as metabolic regulator

Microbial studies on children’s stool samples – Florence and Africa

Is food changing micro-flora?

Is soil changing micro-flora?

Microbiome transfer between soil and bodies.

Read the paper here

Soil as immune support

Work of Prof.Erika von Mutius and allergies

Why is it that farm children have very little allergies?

See slide photo – there is the same amount of bacteria in the farm and in the flat. It is the variety of bacteria that makes the protective difference.

Soil as community medicine

Karen Washington – Bronx Community Gardens

The work of Jill Litt at the University of Colorado

Soil as earth healer

Soil as medicine

Children in Finland have four times the allergies than over the border in Russia. Experts have found that it is the soil that makes the difference. Work of Leena von Hertzen – see paper here

The disciplines of health and agriculture need to collaborate.

Finland has become too clean!

Campaigns to expose people to a wider microbiome.

N.B. Please check out the slides below – they are great! Notice the ‘free-range’ in comparison to the pasture-raised chicken.