Works by
Kenny Ausubel
(Editor, Filmmaker, Journalist, Writer)

Books

• Ecological Medicine: Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves (2004), Kenny Ausubel, ed. with J. P. Harpignies
  Drawn largely from luminous presentations given at the annual Bioneers Conference, this pathfinding book--the first in a new Bioneers Series published by Sierra Club Books--focuses on pragmatic solutions emerging at the fertile edges between the overlapping worlds of environmental restoration and holistic healing. In this kaleidoscopic collection, many of the world's leading health visionaries show us how human health is inescapably dependent on the health of our environment.
  
  The rich array of voices in this book reflects the collective intelligence of the emerging movement known as Ecological Medicine. Its advocates look to the strategic public health measures that first do no harm to the environment and, in turn, successfully improve human health. They call for prevention and precaution as the first line of action. They seek to heal the tragic split that conventional medicine made from nature and to conjure nature's own mysterious capacity for self-repair. They celebrate the virtues of ancient natural-medicine practices but also embrace an integrative medicine that uses the best of all approaches to healing--with special emphasis on the centrality of the human spirit in the healing process. Their inspiring work, described so compellingly in this book, is of critical relevance to everyone concerned about health and the environment.

• Nature's Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies (2004), Kenny Ausubel, ed. with J. P. Harpignies
  "Biotechnology" as generally understood is a misnomer, having less to do with biology than with generating profits from genetic manipulation. The corporatizing of genetic science is just the latest risky manifestation of a dysfunctional industrial paradigm based on consuming natural capital and producing toxic waste--an economic model totally at odds with the evolutionary intelligence of living systems.
  
  But there is another way. The "true biotechnologies," described in this second volume in the Bioneers series, are working strategies grounded in the innate complexity, relatedness, and sustainability of natural ecosystems. The contributors to this volume are visionary leaders in fields such as biomimicry (mimicking nature in order to restore nature and serve human ends harmlessly), "living machines" that break down toxics biologically, natural design for industrial processes and buildings, and the restoration of natural capital. Their guiding principles include diversity, kinship, symbiosis, reciprocity, and community. These brilliant innovators illuminate a future environment of hope by "wedding human ingenuity with the wisdom of the wild," as contributor John Todd puts it.
  
  Human beings are a keystone species with an essential role to play in the ecological well-being of our world; we are only just learning how to go about it. Sector by sector--from energy and agriculture to transportation, industrial production, and land management--the true biotechnologies described here show how nature has already orchestrated a symphony of intelligent design that we can emulate and adapt, to the benefit of humanity and all life on Earth.

• When Healing Becomes a Crime: The Amazing Story of the Hoxsey Cancer Clinics and the Return of Alternative Therapies (2000)
  A powerful and substantiated expose of the medical politics that prevents promising alternative cancer therapies from being implemented in the United States.
  
  Focuses on Harry Hoxsey, the subject of the author's award-winning documentary, who claimed to cure cancer using herbal remedies.
  
  Presents scientific evidence supporting Hoxsey's cancer-fighting claims.
  
  Published to coincide with the anticipated 2000 public release of the government-sponsored report finding "noteworthy cases of survival" among Hoxsey
  patients.
  
  Harry Hoxsey claimed to cure cancer using herbal remedies, and thousands of patients swore that he healed them. His Texas clinic became the world's largest privately owned cancer center with branches in seventeen states, and the value of its therapeutic treatments was upheld by two federal courts. Even his arch-nemesis, the AMA, admitted his treatment was effective against some forms of cancer. But the medical establishment refused an investigation, branding Hoxsey the worst cancer quack of the century and forcing his clinic to Tijuana, Mexico, where it continues to claim very high success rates. Modern laboratory tests have confirmed the anticancer properties of Hoxsey's herbs, and a federal govenment-sponsored report is now calling for a major reconsideration of the Hoxsey therapy.
  
  When Healing Becomes a Crime exposes the overall failure of the War on Cancer, while revealing how yesterday's "unorthodox" treatments are emerging as tomorrow's medicine. It probes other promising unconventional cancer treatments that have also been condemned without investigation, delving deeply into the corrosive medical politics and powerful economic forces behind this suppression. As alternative medicine finally regains its rightful place in mainstream practice, this compelling book will not only forever change the way you see medicine, but could also save your life.

• The Bioneers: Declarations of Interdependence (1995, 2001)
  Meet the Bioneers—visionary “biological pioneers” who use nature to heal nature. The Bioneers: Declarations of Interdependence, presents the fascinating and inspiring stories of 14 people at the cutting edge of solutions-based approaches to environmental restoration, whose work includes technological innovation, economic strategies, social justice, and a spiritual connection to the natural world. These scientific and social innovators are helping to define a coming Age of Biology founded in principles of kinship, interdependence, cooperation, and community. They share working models for restoration that can be replicated, refined, and spread around the world as vital keys to environmental and cultural renewal. Learn about John Todd, Monika Griefahn, Francisco X. Alarcón, Kat Harrison, Fred Kirschenmann, Jason Clay, Vandana Shiva, and many more.
  
  The Bioneers are inspirational role models demonstrating that individuals can make a positive difference toward creating a sustainable future—on the ground, in communities, in corporate boardrooms, and in the corridors of government. As noted entrepreneur and author Paul Hawken (The Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism) says, “The Bioneers are central to the re-imagination of what it means to be human.”

• Seeds of Change; The Living Treasure (1994)
  Takes a look at the mission of the national company Kenny Ausube co-founded to bring “backyard biodiversity” into the food web as a hedge against the extinction of the traditional and native seed stocks essential to the biodiversity of farming and survival of our food systems.

Movies

• Hoxsey: How Healing Becomes A Crime (1987)
  Ken Ausubel, director with Max Gail and Peter Barry Chowka   DVD  VHS
  
  In 1924, Harry Hoxsey claimed a cure for cancer using herbal formulas. Organized medicine has banned the therapy, exiling it to Mexico.