SCIENCE science.org 3 JUNE 2022 • VOL 376 ISSUE 6597 1045IMAGE: HERITAGE IMAGE PARTNERSHIP LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
alchemy (and eternal health) in the Middle
Ages, and then on to the invention of various
tonics in the 19 th and 20 th centuries, the book
reveals the fascinating backstory of the spirits
that sit on our bar shelves. All forms of alcohol,
as well as the characters who brew them, get
their 15 minutes of fame. Monks, we learn, for
example, played key roles in the development
of at least two beverages that are commercially
popular today: Chartreuse and Dom Pérignon
champagne. Delightful descriptions of ludi-
crous concoctions abound, such as Buckfast
Tonic Wine, a caffeinated, fortified wine that,
according to the author, has become the drink
of choice for Scottish hooligans.
English discerningly points out when
the medicinal value of alcohol-based rem-
edies is likely to be low or nonexistent (the
brandy allegedly toted by Alpine mastiffs to
revive avalanche survivors, for instance). He
describes how absinthe got its reputation
for inducing madness, delving into ill-fated
public demonstrations on live guinea pigs,
and recounts how Rose’s Lime Juice origi-
nated as a treatment for scurvy.
Science—in the evidence-supported,
peer-reviewed sense—waits in the wings for
the first part of the book, making a grand
entrance in chapter 4, where English in-
troduces the early chemists and physicists
who sought to understand carbonation and
the connection between microorganisms
and fermentation. Here, we peer into Louis
Pasteur’s laboratory as the microbiologist
delivers a death blow to the theory of spon-
taneous generation, in the process drawing
attention to the strains of yeast responsible
for fermenting alcohol safely.Medicine and the scientific method re-
mained loosely associated, at best, for mil-
lennia, English reminds readers. Moreover,
what is considered “medicine” and what is a
“cocktail” remain fluid, overlapping catego-
ries to this day. For reasons that range from
well supported to actively misguided, alcohol
consumption and health are tied together.
This book is best savored, not shot-
gunned, with a drink in hand and among
company who will not mind frequent inter-
ruptions to hear passages read aloud.Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal
History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails,
Camper English, Penguin, 2022, 368 pp.Regenesis
Reviewed by Chelsea Martinez^5Particularly for those of us at a remove from
it, the word “farming” conjures a pastoral
idyll that George Monbiot wants to dispel.
His most recent book, Regenesis, lays out a
clear but difficult path for saving the world
from agriculture as we currently know it.
Regenesis examines the unsustainability of
modern farming and offers a road map for
rethinking it through diversification of grow-
ing techniques and an end to farming ani-
mals for meat. The book comes just as many
of us have felt, for the first time, the fragility
of our global food system, as supply chains
strained during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monbiot begins with a firsthand account
of biodiversity at the microscopic scale in hisbackyard and quickly moves to alternating
chapters about the brittleness of the farm-
ing status quo in the distinct submarkets of
meat, fruit and vegetable, and grain produc-
tion and how that fragility might be fixed.
Most of the farmers, agroecologists, and
food security workers profiled are not uni-
versity or government researchers. Fengyi
Hu, whose perennial rice strain PR23 was
developed through plant breeding at Yunnan
Agricultural University, is the lone excep-
tion. Lively stories of these self-made farmer-
scientists, many of whom are local to the UK-
based author, explore everything from inter-
cropping (the practice of growing two crops
in close proximity) to no-till farming.
Monbiot notes that the experimental
farming he features is done on private land,
which either has been inherited, has been
purchased with a separate revenue stream,
or is essentially on long-term loan from a
patron. While this focus highlights how dif-
ficult it is for smallholder farmers around
the world to survive while innovating, it
curiously obscures the research space that
generates so much of the plant knowledge
he draws on throughout the text. It is as if
academic agricultural research does not ex-
ist, and this is a curious omission.
T he book is at its best in the clear contrast
it draws between how agricultural markets
and natural ecosystems function and in re-
vealing the greater coherence of the latter,
even when it operates in ways we do not
fully understand. For example, plants, we
learn, release up to 40% of the sugars they
produce to their surroundings, but they are
not throwing away their own food, they
are simply deploying it for other purposes.
Meanwhile, hundreds of beetle mite species
have been shown to coexist in a single area,
a natural selection no-no. But such systems
are always frugal. Agribusiness—which we
might assume to be efficient—is, in real-
ity, often colossally wasteful, in ways that
are easily quantified (through carbon-to-
nitrogen ratios, for example, or soil drain-
age rates) and that often go unmeasured
(e.g., loss of species and ecosystem services).
Still, we assume that such practices are just
the cost of doing business.
Regenesis clearly communicates what it
means to be a resilient system—one with
redundancy, which will not collapse when
one link is broken—and describes how such
systems have evolved among plants, their
predators, and their symbiotes. Chemical
processes are made legible for the non-
expert, who will come away understand-
ing the benefits of chemically and spatially
complex mixtures in contexts ranging from
the crumb texture of bread, to row farming
with herbal ley, and, most importantly, to
While brandy-toting mastiff rescuers may be mythical, alcohol and medicine have long been intertwined. complex, undisturbed soil. In so doing, theINSIGHTS | BOOKSCorrected 3 June 2022. See full text.