Summary of David R. Montgomery's What Your Food Ate

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 How we grow our food has a profound effect on the nutrients in our food, and the health benefits of those nutrients. The quality of the soil on farms and ranches affects the health of crops, and the health of crops affects the health of animals. We can’t ignore the soil when we consider what we put on our plates. -> The soil is the starting point for foods that come from the land, and a groundswell of evidence points to an underappreciated factor contributing to food quality: the health of the soil on farms and ranches.

#2 The quality of the soil on farms and ranches affects the health of crops, and the health of crops affects the health of animals. We can’t ignore the soil when we consider what we put on our plates.

#3 The soil is the starting point for foods that come from the land, and a groundswell of evidence points to an underappreciated factor contributing to food quality: the health of the soil on farms and ranches.

#4 Modern farming practices do not necessarily deliver the nutrition or animal welfare that many consumers associate with organic food. There are many reasons beyond the kitchen to care about how we grow our food, from downstream water pollution to the well-being of those who work on farms.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Sep 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350031485

IRB Media

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Insights on David R. Montgomery's What Your Food Ate

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The health of the soil on farms and ranches is an underappreciated factor that contributes to the quality of food. The state of the land influences the health of crops, for better and worse. And the nutritional quality of the pasture, crops, or rangeland that livestock eat strongly influences their health.

#2

Regenerative farming practices help stop soil erosion, enhance soil health, and build up soil organic matter. They are catching on among American farmers, allowing them to slash spending on fuel, fertilizers, and pesticides.

#3

While food grown in degraded soil is not the cause of all the health problems humanity faces, it is a contributing factor. The fact that farming practices influence the quality of food we consume leaves us with an unsettling question: how good is modern agriculture for our health.

#4

Modern marketing and the ubiquity of highly processed foods have confused and misdirected our inherent nutritional wisdom. We must choose between quantity and quality, or we can grow enough to nourish us all.

#5

Through the eyes and experience of a geologist and a biologist, we will explore how farming practices affect the soil, plants, animals, and us. We will examine how beliefs about health, medicine, and food are intertwined with farming practices.

#6

The more we learn, the more we realize that a healthy diet is the best way to prevent and treat chronic diseases. However, this isn’t a new idea. Around 400 BCE, the Greek physician generally credited with bringing reason into medicine advocated a nutritious diet as the best defense against sickness and disease.

#7

The human microbiome is also influenced by diet, and what our gut microbes eat helps explain the now-standard nutritional wisdom of a diet loaded with fruits and vegetables.

#8

The human diet has changed a lot over the past 10,000 years, from hunting and gathering to agriculture. The most recent shift was the introduction of calorie- and nutrient-rich grains that stored well and provided year-round meals.

#9

Our society has become accustomed to eating large amounts of food that is low in nutritional value. We have come to believe that more is better, and that calories are a substitute for nutrients. But we have failed to consider what may be missing from those calories even as we learned there is more to health than sufficient calories.

#10

The costs of treating chronic diseases are staggering. The Western diet, which is based on a calorie-centric view of food, undervalues other components in our diet, such as micronutrients and phytochemicals.

#11

The roots of many chronic diseases and autoimmune disorders trace to inflammation, and food choices can either promote or quell chronic inflammation. We need to eat less, but more-nutritious food.

#12

Soil health is a clarifying lens through which to view the effects of farming practices on human health. While industrial organic farms can destroy fertile soil, no matter what you may think about industrial agriculture, we cannot simply pin