The Headwaters Garden and Learning Center is pleased to sponsor a talk by author Didi Pershouse at the Willey Building on Friday, May 27th at 5:30 about her new book: The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities.
The book starts with human health, outlining the origins of what Ms. Pershouse sees as modern medicine's overemphasis on a sterile approach to healing and moves from there into some of the same themes in agriculture and economics.
One story describes a time when entrepreneurs in New York City fed cows the sludge left over from whiskey production as a way to produce fresh milk in an urban area, far from the green fields of the countryside. The cows got sick, and their sickness spread through the milk, leading to the "modern" idea of pasteurization, sterilization, and sanitation as the way to health.
As it turns out, the microbial communities in our soil, our intestinal tract, and the muddy connectedness of community are also critically important to health.
Ms. Pershouse established the Center for Sustainable Medicine in Thetford, Vermont to:
1) Educate the public and scientific community about the need for sustainable and ecologically sound forms of medicine.
2) Help preserve indigenous medicinal plants and knowledge for future generations.
3) Create dialogue between practitioners, thinkers, and visionaries in the fields of Medicine, Alternative Healing, and Environmental Studies, and
4) Support the worldwide development of clinics and hospitals providing sustainable healthcare.
One thing she has found in all her work is that "real medicine must benefit the whole system—our communities, both human and natural. There is no need to separate the processes of healing ourselves, the environment, and our communities."
The Headwaters Garden and Learning Center is an ecovillage in Cabot dedicated to living in ways that enhance human and environmental health. More information can be found at www.headwatersvermont.org.
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