Didi Pershouse

Didi Pershouse is the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine as well as the Land and Leadership Initiative, an online school. She is the author of two books: The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities, and Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function. 

Growing up in a family of high-tech medical pioneers, she saw the often destructive effects of radiation and other invasive treatments. This led Pershouse to pioneer a systems-based ecological medicine. Her sliding-scale practice included community acupuncture, nutrient-dense diets, and resiliency counseling. In The Ecology of Care, published in 2016, she connected the dots between soil health and public health, and the role of beneficial microorganisms in maintaining a healthy climate inside and outside our bodies.   

Her work examines the relationships between soil health, shifting weather patterns, capitalism, and human health. In 2017 she published a teacher’s manual for Soil Health and Watersheds  that has been used in over 40 countries, and was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day. Pershouse now travels widely, leading participatory workshops on the living soil sponge, which makes life on land possible.

Her teaching and facilitation engage farmers and ranchers, schools, policy makers, investors, and environmentalists in building working groups to reduce flooding and drought, improve local economies, and improve soil health, public health, and climate resiliency through changes in land management.  She is the board chair/president of the Soil Carbon Coalition.

In the spring of 2018, she helped launch the "Can we Rehydrate California?" and "Soil Sponge" initiatives with a series of U.S. workshops. She also leads retreats to develop and support resilient environmental leadership based in principles borrowed from the Benedictines: beginning with stability and commitment, centered in deep listening, while remaining flexible in thought and action. 

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Twitter: @DidiPershouse
Instagram: @DidiPershouse

Websites

didipershouse.com
sustainablemedicine.org