She mentions that she recently had her first physical exam in 13 years. It’s telling, she observes, that medical forms ask only about the health of one’s parents and siblings. We’re not asked about the people we live with, our neighbors, or our community. "We think we’re separate from the environment," she says. "This is laughable. With ecological medicine, the medical community now has an invitation and a charge to look at the whole system, the person within the context of her or his environment."

She says children’s health is the logical place to start applying the precautionary principle. "Environmental signals are easier to sort out the younger the subject," she explains. "And the damage is more catastrophic. If it’s preventable, then by God, we better prevent it." To do so, we need to shift our research away from genetics and new miracle drugs and focus on prevention.

Raffensperger advocates that medical practitioners should be trained to recognize relationships between our health and our environment. She proposes widening the concept of the "alert practitioner," which is now used to describe medical professionals who see patterns in prescription drug use (like the doctor in nearby Fargo who first recognized that the weight loss treatment fen-phen was causing heart problems). In the future, this vigilance would extend beyond pharmacology to the entire environment.


As night falls and fills the enormous prairie sky with stars, Raffensperger cranks up an Emmylou Harris song and says, "I want to do my work as well as she sings." Art, she says, is essential to the environmental movement: "I can write all the scientific and legal papers in the world, but they’re not going to change people’s hearts. Only art can do that."

She shows me an ancient stone buffalo butchering tool and a maul, both found near the farm. "I keep thinking about what we’re going to leave behind: Styrofoam, DDT, PCBs." She holds out the maul and looks at it intently. "I want to be known for leaving something as beautiful as Shakespeare—or this artifact."

Raffensperger says she is going to miss this place. She’s in the process of moving to Ames, Iowa, where Kirschen-mann has accepted the directorship of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Kirschenmann’s daughter will be moving into the house. But Raffensperger is comforted in the knowledge that her new home has elderberries in the yard. In true Raffensperger style, she weaves them into a web of meaning. "We need to value the wisdom of our elders. We need to go back to wise people who understand the world, the body, and the ecology that surrounds it." She explains how elderberries were an important plant in medical guides compiled by early settlers. She’s already found a recipe for elderberry flower fritters in