Darwinian Agriculture: How Understanding Evolution Can Improve Agriculture - Softcover

Denison, R. Ford

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691173761 ISBN 13: 9780691173764

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Harnessing evolution for more sustainable agriculture

As human populations grow and resources are depleted, agriculture will need to use land, water, and other resources more efficiently and without sacrificing long-term sustainability. Darwinian Agriculture presents an entirely new approach to these challenges, one that draws on the principles of evolution and natural selection.

R. Ford Denison shows how both biotechnology and traditional plant breeding can use Darwinian insights to identify promising routes for crop genetic improvement and avoid costly dead ends. Denison explains why plant traits that have been genetically optimized by individual selection-such as photosynthesis and drought tolerance-are bad candidates for genetic improvement. Traits like plant height and leaf angle, which determine the collective performance of plant communities, offer more room for improvement. Agriculturalists can also benefit from more sophisticated comparisons among natural communities and from the study of wild species in the landscapes where they evolved.

Darwinian Agriculture reveals why it is sometimes better to slow or even reverse evolutionary trends when they are inconsistent with our present goals, and how we can glean new ideas from natural selection's marvelous innovations in wild species.

About this title

About the Author

R. Ford Denison is adjunct professor of ecology, evolution, and behavior at the University of Minnesota and taught crop ecology at the University of California, Davis.

From the Back Cover

"Darwinian Agriculture is a very important contribution to our understanding of the links between nature and agriculture, and to the future of our human race. Denison underpins his arguments with an incredible wealth of insight and knowledge about plants, animals, physics, chemistry, biology, and ecology. The depth and breadth of scholarship embodied in this book is stunning. I know of nothing else like it."--Kenneth G. Cassman, University of Nebraska

"I found this book to be tremendously interesting and thought-provoking. Darwinian Agriculture should be read by everyone interested in increasing agricultural production in a sustainable way--from biotechnologists to agronomists, and everyone in between."--Jay A. Rosenheim, University of California, Davis

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691173761
• ISBN 13: 9780691173764
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 270