Darwin′s Harvest – Origins, Evolution, and Conservation of Crop Plants: New Approaches to the Origins, Evolution, and Conservation of Crops - Hardcover

Motley, Timothy; Zerega, Nyree; Cross, Hugh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231133162 ISBN 13: 9780231133166

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2006

Synopsis

Darwin's Harvest addresses concerns that we are losing the diversity of crop plants that provide food for most of the world. With contributions from evolutionary biologists, geneticists, agronomists, molecular biologists, and anthropologists, this collection discusses how economic development, loss of heirloom varieties and wild ancestors, and modern agricultural techniques have endangered the genetic diversity needed to keep agricultural crops vital and capable of adaptation. Drawing on the most up-to-date data, the contributors review the utilization of molecular techniques to understand crop evolution. They explore current research on various crop plants of both temperate and tropical origin, including maize, sunflower, avocado, sugarcane, and wheat. The chapters in Darwin's Harvest also provide solid background for understanding many recent discoveries concerning the origins of crops and the influence of human migration and farming practices on the genetics of our modern foods.

About this title

Review:

A fascinating collection of cutting-edge analyses.--Charles R. Clement "Economic Botany "

About the Author:

Timothy J. Motley is associate professor in the Collum Program for Molecular Systematics at The New York Botanical Garden. Nyree Zerega is the director of the Plant Biology and Conservation Program at Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden. Hugh Cross is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Herbarium of theNetherlands, Leiden University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0231133162
• ISBN 13: 9780231133166
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384