Island Press Field Notes

For the past couple of years, I’ve been wondering why the Vet can vaccinate our dog for Lyme*, but the best our doctor can offer is a dose of doxycyline, ex post facto. Why is it, despite the spraying and tucking and checking out the nooks and crannies post-walk, a simple stroll on a glorious summer day is more of a health risk for humans than for their best friend? (And here in Western MA, it’s a big risk.) Why isn’t there a human Lyme vaccine? In part, there isn’t a human vaccine thanks to the anti-vax movement.

A toddler suddenly becomes deathly ill. In the ER she is diagnosed with dysentery, caused by a rare but particularly aggressive form of Salmonella. One antibiotic after another fails because the strain, picked up when her family was traveling across parts of Asia, resists multiple antibiotics; but there is an alternative new drug.

Earlier this month, media announced the first Zika-related death in the United States, meanwhile Congress recently adjourned for a seven-week recess without passing additional funding to fight the virus. Check out what Chasing the Red Queen  author Andy Dyer  had to say about this political inaction below.

I am thrilled—thrilled!—to reveal that I'll be giving a book talk on Saturday, October 8 at Politics & Prose, Washington, DC's venerated bookseller. I'll be speaking about my book, Biting the Hands that Feed Us: How Fewer, Smarter Laws Would Make Our Food System More Sustainable, at the bookstore starting at 1 p.m. I'll also be signing copies of the book, which goes on sale on September 15, after my talk.