[.uk] Empty Harvest (ISBN 089529558X)

Astounding:
This book should be adopted by our school systems. the most profound read I think I've ever had. a real eye opener.

THIS BOOK HAS CHANGED MY LIFE!!!:
I just finished reading this book and have started to re-read it. I have been so touched by this book; it has tranformed my attitude and thoughts about my health, the earth and environment. I only hope that everyone who reads my review will read this book or, at least, consider an organic diet in support of preventative health and farmer's whose growing methods are replinishing the valuable topsoil and doing away with highly toxic chemicals. It is hard to believe what "modern society" has done to our planet and health in such a short amount of time. I hope that, one person at a time, we can undo the damage that has been done. A sincere Thank You to the late Bernard Jenson for such thorough and insightful research.

Useful:
This book has gotten me back into doing what I used to do: buying organic. It got expensive, the organic food store is an hour away... and I got lazy. This book woke me up again. It has also raised a desire in me to start my own garden. The information is mostly good, though maybe a little scattered. I don't believe in evolution; therefore don't believe the earth is "millions" of years old. There is a little bit too much eco-hysteria for my taste, and I don't worship "Mother Earth" either, but those views don't affect the useful information in the book. Some of the info might be outdated by now, so I'd recommend doing some more research before implementing something new (e.g., detoxification). All in all, a great book to get us to "wake up and smell the coffee" (or else get us to stop drinking it!).

Essential health education material:
The premise of the book's subtitle - Understanding the Link Between Our Food, Our Immunity and Our Planet - got my attention. And, for the most part, the authors succeed in making their central point. They connect the dots between the quality of the soil, the harvest, our immune system, and our health. This level of holistic thinking is an important foundational piece of any conversation about the systems that are involved in creating personal and planetary health. The two authors contribute separate sections of the book. Dr. Bernard Jenson is often eloquent and impassioned, and his photographs alone are a powerful testimonial to his ideas. Mark Anderson writes knowledgably about nutrition and provides interesting historical background on agricultural science and nutrition research - and the work of special interest groups to suppress unfavorable findings and individuals, and corporations who promote bogus notions. \oDid you know that smoking cigarettes was once advertised as an aid to digestion? Yikes!\c On the whole, this book mostly lives up to its promise, but it does so somewhat unevenly. Most scientific material is explained and substantiated in some detail - vitamin C, candida albicans, calcium, and the symbiotic relationship between plants and soil. But other subjects receive such superficial treatment that they would have been better off omitted - the chapter on cleansing and detoxification is too general to be of real use to anybody considering implementing such a program. The content and message of the book would have been better served with more skillful editing because the material often comes across as somewhat haphazardly organized, making it harder to reconnect the parts to the whole. Also, given the publication date, 1989, I'd recommend double-checking some of the theories and explanations offered, since our understanding of how things work - whether in the body or the environment -- has undoubtedly changed in 15 years; ditto for some of the doomsday predictions data.

sincere and readable but lacking scientific weight:
I bought this thinking it might have some hardcore science (in a digestible form for the layman) like 'The Hundred-Year Lie' or 'Our Stolen Future'. It is much more lightweight than that - although it is basically a scientific discussion, it does not have any great depth. It discusses depletion of the soil, knock-on effect on human health, and general environmental issues. I liked the tone and sincerity of the authors, and liked it enough to read all the way through, but didn't feel like I learned that much. On a related topic, there's a good and more up-to-date book about what makes healthy soil (and food... and people...) called 'We Want Real Food' by Graham Harvey.