About the Book
Food's Frontier provides a survey of pioneering agricultural research projects underway in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, India, China, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru by a writer both well-grounded technically and sensitive to social and cultural issues. The book starts from the premise that the "Green Revolution" which averted mass starvation a generation ago is not a long-term solution to global food needs and has created its own very serious problems. Based on increasing yields by extensive use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and monoculture--agribusiness-style production of single crops--this approach has poisoned both land and farm workers, encouraged new strains of pests that are resistant to ever-increasing amounts of pesticides, and killed the fertility of land by growing single crops rather than rotating crops that can replenish nutrients in the soil. Solutions to these problems are coming from a reexamination of ancient methods of agriculture that have allowed small-scale productivity over many generations. Research in the developing world, based on alternative methods and philosophies, indigenous knowledge, and native crops, joined with cutting edge technology, offer hope for a more lasting solution to the world's increasing food needs.
About the Author
Richard Manning is an environmental journalist and author. Among his books are Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics and Promise of the American Prairie (1995), A Good House: Building a Life on the Land (1994), and Last Stand: Logging, Journalism, and the Case for Humility (1991). His reporting has received the Audubon Society Journalism Award, the R. J. Margolis award, and three C. B. Blethen awards.
Table of Contents
The Seed
The Case for a Second Green Revolution
An Island in Africa
Global Methods, Local Choices
[Ethiopia]
How Things Fall Apart
When Politics Pushes People Against Nature's Limits
[Zimbabwe]
To Work in Peace
Visionaries in Violent Times
(Uganda]
From Basket Case to Bread Basket
When Biotechnology Has a Brain Trust
[India]
The Critical Mass
The fate of farming in an Industrializing World
[Nanjing, China]
Genetic Revolution
Bioengineering on the Loose
[Shanghai, China]
Forging a Magic Bullet
Technology Based in Biodiversity
[Chile and Brazil]
In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World
Sustaining Traditional Forming and Genetic Resources
[Mexico]
Roots
Restoring Rural Wisdom
[Peru]
The Genie in the Genome
Bioengineering in Context
A Common Ground
Food, Cities, and the Integrity of Rural Life
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
