We know that our diet influences our health. But is there more to the adage “you are what you eat?” Connecting the dots from agriculture to medicine, geologist David R. Montgomery and biologist Anne Biklé argue we overlook the other half of a healthy diet: how we grow our food. Journeying from research labs to the fields of regenerative farmers, they uncover scientific and historical evidence for how farming practices—so often disruptive to microbial partnerships—influence soil health and shape the types and amounts of health-promoting minerals, fats and phytochemicals in our crops, meat and dairy—and thus ourselves. Understanding these connections has profound implications for what we eat and how we grow it, now and in the future. A capstone work from lauded authors, What Your Food Ate is a story both sobering and inspiring: what’s good for the soil is good for us, too.

"What Your Food Ate is stunningly good. It turns out that the organic pioneers had it right. Eat whole foods grown in healthy soil. In the most accessible way, this book gives a riveting exposé on why that is true." -- Dave Chapman, co-founder of the Real Organic Project
"Sure to become a classic—a biological Rosetta Stone that intimately and elegantly shows how the health of soil, plants, animals, and human beings are inseparable.… An exquisitely crafted narrative of ecological literacy that upends more than a century of conventional thinking." -- Paul Hawken, author of Regeneration
"David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé are fast becoming rock stars in the emergent fields of regenerative farming and natural health. What Your Food Ate is a brilliant tour de force and a must-read." -- Carolyn Steel, author of Hungry City
"A must read for farmers, ranchers, eaters, and scientists. What Your Food Ate illuminates connections critical to each of us—and our planet." -- Gabe Brown, author of Dirt to Soil

David R. Montgomery is a professor at the University of Washington and a MacArthur Fellow. He is the author and coauthor of several previous books about soil and agriculture, including Dirt, Growing a Revolution, and What Your Food Ate. He lives with his wife in Seattle. Anne Biklé is a biologist and environmental planner. What Your Food Ate is the capstone of their “Dirt Trilogy.” She lives in Seattle, Washington.