This could be the most important book you will read this year. Aroundthe office at Chelsea Green it is referred to as the “pharmaceuticalSilent Spring.”Well-known author, teacher, lecturer, and herbalist Stephen HarrodBuhner has produced a book that is certain to generate controversy. Itconsists of three parts:1. A critique of technological medicine, and especially the dangers tothe environment posed by pharmaceuticals and other synthetic substancesthat people use in connection with health care and personal body care.2. A new look at Gaia Theory, including an explanation that plants arethe original chemistries of Gaia and those phytochemistries are thefundamental communications network for the Earth’s ecosystems.3. Extensive documentation of how plants communicate their healingqualities to humans and other animals. Western culture has obliteratedmost people’s capacity to perceive these messages, but this book alsocontains valuable information on how we can restore our faculties ofperception.The book will affect readers on rational and emotional planes. It isgrounded in both a New Age spiritual sensibility and hard science. Whilesome of the author’s claims may strike traditional thinkers asoutlandish, Buhner presents his arguments with such authority anddocumentation that the scientific underpinnings, however unconventional,are completely credible.The overall impact is a powerful, eye-opening expos’ of the threatthat our allopathic Western medical system, in combination with ourunquestioning faith in science and technology, poses to the primarylife-support systems of the planet. At a time when we are preoccupiedwith the terrorist attacks and the possibility of biological warfare,perhaps it is time to listen to the planet. This book is essentialreading for anyone concerned about the state of the environment, thestate of health care, and our cultural sanity.