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Darwin′s Harvest – Origins, Evolution, and Conservation of Crop Plants: New Approaches to the Origins, Evolution, and Conservation of Crops
Author(s): Timothy Motley (Author), Nyree Zerega (Author), Hugh Cross (Author)
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication Date: 3 Feb. 2006
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 384 pages
- ISBN-10: 0231133162
- ISBN-13: 9780231133166
Book Description
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.
Editorial Reviews
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.
