A request comes in from our friend Danny Hunter. Help him out!
Now that the noughties have drawn to a close I would like to ask colleagues what they felt were their top agricultural biodiversity reads of the decade. It might be an article or a book. It might even be a blog or one of the new fangled ways of disseminating information. It could be something general or a specific piece of work that was fundamental to our understanding of agricultural biodiversity, how it is conserved, managed, utilised. As well as the details of the article or book, a brief explanation of why you thought the work important would be much appreciated.
Well since no-one else has stepped up I’ll offer a few of my favourites: Jared Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel; whilst not primarily about agrobiodiversity does address it repeatedly and in a way that is truly fascinating. I also really enjoyed Chris Stock’s “Forgotten Fruits: A Guide to Britain’s Traditional Fruit and Vegetables, from Orange Jelly Turnips to Dan’s Mistake Gooseberries” which does pretty much what it says on the cover.
New media? The Ethicurean and the Rancho Gordo beans blog.
PS – forgot the agroforestry research trust website/catalogue which I think people interested in the topic will enjoy looking at even if it is a catalogue as opposed to a book/blog.
I really enjoyed John Reader’s Propitious Esculent, which brought in a whole load of new information about the potato that I didn’t know. Most interesting, to me, its role in the silver mines of southern Peru.
I would also vote for Guns, Germs and Steel. And Nabhan’s Where Our Food Comes From. And the Pollan book.
But what “agroforestry research trust” did you have in mind?
This Agroforestry Research Trust, I expect. I hope so. Good people.
New one on me.
yep – that is the one I had in mind Jeremy.
The Diamond book is from the previous milennium (1997), which disqualifies it, I guess.
It´s an interesting book. On the one hand, geographers have pointed out all sorts of real or perceived flaws, especially its environmental determinism. On the other hand, they should also be aware that one of the book´s main flaws is that a non-geographer had to write it.
I would nominate agro.agro.biodiver.se and not (just) to be nice.
Ah. Ok. Collapse, then? And thanks, BTW!
I haven´t read Collapse.
Any civilization collapse had to do with agrobiodiversity?
As someone who used to cart boxes of apples home each weekend when I worked at East Malling Research station, I can also say that I thoroughly enjoyed Christopher Stock’s Forgotten Fruits. From his early description of the origin of Cox’s Orange Pippin I was hooked. The book is chock full of nuggets. I enjoyed Gary Nabhan’s Where Our Food Comes From just as much and would add a number of his other books to this list. This blog has many times highlighted the impact of climate change on crop wild relatives and the shortcomings of the current network of protected areas. To this end I would also suggest the recent Earthscan publication Nature’s Matrix (Perfecto et al.) who make the case for better connectivity between agricultural and natural landscapes citing a number of examples of agrobiodiverse farming systems, although limited largely to coffee and cacao cultivation. No doubt many more could be added to this.
But what about more science or academic focussed works? What if you were teaching a course or module on agricultural biodiversity? What would be the major texts you would set? What would be the most important published papers of the last ten years you would put on a recommended reading list? I would be keen to know more about these.
I’ll try this again, as it didn’t go the first time.
First, I’d like to add my “vote” for Gary Nabhan’s “Where Our Food Comes From” – which I think is at least as good as any of his previous books (and came out in this decade).
Then, as a suggestion for teaching, for when you only have room to assign one article to introduce the whole subject, I still like John Tuxill’s “The Biodiversity that People Made” in World Watch Magazine, May/June 2000, Volume 13, No. 3 (now available online as either html or pdf from the World Watch site). This article does a great job at introducing the subject in an accessible way in a single paper.
Another overview, this one of archaeological aspects, that isn’t too technical for students, is BALTER, M. 2007. Seeking agriculture’s ancient roots. Science 316: 1830-1835. I use that one for teaching too, though it might be a bit off of the diversity subject.
Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 50: 89–99, 2003. 89
2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
Genetic resources for improving nitrogen fixation in legume-rhizobia
symbiosis
N.A. Provorov* and I.A. Tikhonovich
The idea that more recently domesticated legumes are better at fixing nitrogen is rather intriguing…
Thanks Eve and Dirk, I am not familiar with any of the three articles you mention but will try to get around to reading them. Eve’s mention of John Tuxill reminded me of the excellent People and Plants Conservation Manuals published by Earthscan. I would recommend this series to any student or reader interested in agrobiodiversity but I am not sure all titles fall within the last decade. I know that People, Plants and Protected Areas: A guide to In Situ Management (John Tuxill and Gary Nabhan) does, only just. It is good in terms of its scope and depth for a relatively short book. I would also add Managing Biodiversity in Agricultural Systems edited by Jarvis et al. for the same reasons although it is much longer. Finally, for the sheer pleasure of reading about the world’s food plants I would suggest the new edition (published 2009) of The New Oxford Book of Food Plants with an additional 30 new species. It is an excellent introduction with beautiful illustrations and a useful chapter on nutrition and health.
I half read Propitious Esculent in the Eden Project shop recently – better go back and finish it. Hell, I might even buy it. I better go out and get myself a new copy of The New Oxford Book of Food Plants as well, which in its original edition first got me interested in esculents, propitious or otherwise, when I was a kid. Cornucopia – a Sourcebook of Edible Plants by Stephen Facciola gave me hours of fun back in the 90s. Books by Gary Nabhan are always good value and I like some of Charles Heiser’s books like Of Plants and People and The fascinating World of the Nightshades.
One River, by Wade Davis; The World was my Garden, by David Fairchild; Hortus 3, by Liberty Hide Bailey; Stalking the Wild Asparagus, by Euell Gibbons, to mention a few gems.
Gems all, Tom, as you say, but published long before the noughties, which was Danny’s original request. and if we’re going out of the decade, Carol Deppe’s Breed your own vegetable varieties would get my vote. Omigod. In checking for the link, I discover that a revised 2nd edition was published in November 2000.
So, that gets my vote, 100%.
Note to self: read the beginnings of threads as well as the ends.
I agree with Jeremy – Carol Deppe’s book is excellent and inspiring – which is why I have both editions. Definitely a seminal work, pun intended. I await the 3rd edition with anticipation – I want to know what happened to her “Sweet Sandwich” squash……
A good yarn is Sarah Rose’s book “For all the tea in China” Espionage, empire and the secret formula for the world’s favourite drink, Hutchinson, London, 2009.
It is the story of Robert Fortune, a biopirate in the service of the East India company, “transferring tea germplasm and know how” from China to India. The only flaw of the book is an erroneous equating of the extremely poisonous cyanide (CN) with the prussic acid (ferrocyanide; the Fe sticks to the CN forming a hexacyanide complex [FeCN6]4-) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrocyanide] that was used by Chinese tea processors to colour their product.
Otherwise it is a highly entertaining tale and well worth a read.