Award winning author and veterinary epidemiologist David Waltner-Toews taves  has published seven collections of poetry, one of which includes recipes, a collection of short stories, a murder mystery, six books of popular science, and several texts and manuals on ecosystem approaches to health. From meditations on the origins of feces to elegant terzanelles on the meaning of life, from human diseases we get from other animals, to what food, sex and Salmonella share with each other, DWT celebrates the whole complex mess of life. A University Professor Emeritus at University of Guelph, he was founding president of Veterinarians without Borders--Canada and of the Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health, and a founding member of Communities of Practice for Ecosystem Approaches to Health in Canada. He is the recipient of the inaugural award for contributions to ecosystem approaches to health from The International Association for Ecology and Health.