All Natural*

October 22, 2012
Why are severe injuries to women during childbirth increasing in the U.S.? Can our prevailing assumptions about diet and nutrition “to a large extent be responsible for the epidemics in heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis”? How can humans be a functional, helpful part of nature rather than destroying it? These are some of the questions that journalist Johnson explores in his quest to “unravel the confusion surrounding technology and nature.” His vehicle for investigation is wonder, which he proposes to be “the place shared by the rigorous science of the technological perspective and the creative free thinking of the natural perspective.” Johnson was raised by hippyesque parents in the alternate lifestyle enclave of Nevada City, Calif., and his anxieties and struggles around such issues as computer games, the hiking epiphanies of his childhood, and home vs. hospital birth for his newly pregnant wife intertwine with his musings. Johnson, who studied with Michael Pollen at UC Berkeley, takes a similarly open-minded, nonideological approach, and Pollen’s fans, as well as other readers grappling with the flood of conflicting information about how to live a healthy, nondestructive life, will appreciate this book’s thoughtful and nuanced attitude and its often surprising conclusions. Agent: David Kuhn, Kuhn Projects.

November 15, 2012
In his debut, journalist and This American Life contributor Johnson examines aspects of medicine, food and the environment to encourage informed decisions among readers caught between the nature-vs.-technology argument. The author personalizes his topics by filtering them through accounts of his upbringing during the 1980s as the son of then-countercultural parents who embraced natural living and through his journey into parenthood. Though he admits to a romanticism that favors a "natural aura," he remains open to contrary evidence and allows that both camps can be valid at different times. Johnson examines controversies with choice anecdotes, research and interviews, including: the success of midwifery at reducing maternal deaths in comparison to births aided by common obstetrical interventions; the belief that raw milk carries harmful pathogens while pasteurized milk is safer; the back-to-the-land school of thought when it comes to nutrition versus the results of industrialized chemistry; the purported dangers of sugar consumption; risks and benefits related to vaccination; homeopathic and allopathic approaches to medicine; and large-scale and sustainable farming. The most intriguing sections feature studies on human milk and on anthropological findings in remote areas, while sections that recall the author's childhood perspective border on the indulgent. Johnson surmises that nature and technology could coexist--a balanced and perhaps obvious view unlikely to satisfy the fringes--but he presents a refreshing optimism that neither extolls the organic to the point of supporting pseudoscience nor negates the value of scientific advancements. Not intended as an expose, but as an overview, the book strikes at the heart of hot-button issues with an Everyman appeal.

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December 1, 2012
In this engaging look at the merits of nature versus technology, journalist Johnson ultimately comes down on the side of reunification of the two. Raised by granola parents, Johnson freely admits that he believes in antibiotics, vaccines, movies, space exploration, and cribs for babies. But he also cites examples of when technology may go too far. In his liveliest chapter, called Masturbacon (with subtitles such as The Chickenification of the American Pig and A Date with the Inseminator ), he watches the stimulation and artificial insemination of hogs. Forget the old-fashioned family farmer. As Johnson notes, The motto of the more efficient, inseminating, vertically integrated megafarmer could be: More handjobs on the farm, fewer farmhands on the job. Johnson also discusses the stress of confinement for pigs. Some suggest breeding pigs that can happily stand on a small slab of concrete for their entire lives, or, as on a more natural farm, hogs can frolic in a porktopia. Johnson's investigation is both horrifying and amusing, and readers will relish the colorful, witty writing and find much food for thought.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)