Food for Thought: Three books for summer reading....
The summer is here and we're looking for ways to keep our minds busy while we trundle the kids off to the beach or while we are on that long flight to the mainland. Just to keep the discussions going about issues related to sustainable agriculture there are three books worth considering for your summer reading.
Claire Hope Cummings, is an environmental lawyer, journalist and activist and has spoken many times in Hawaii, usually sponsored by Hawaii SEED or other activist groups. She was one of the plenary speakers at the Hawaii Island Food Summit held last October, 2007. Her new book, Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds, is a persuasive account of the threat that privatization of agricultural seeds by industrial agriculture poses to the Earth's ecology and Food Supply. Her story exposes the rise of industrial agriculture and plant biotechnology and why patenting seeds is such a threat to our future.
Robert Paarlbert is the Betty F. Johnson Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College. Professor Paarlbert's book, Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa, explains why poor African farmers are denied access to productive technologies, particularly genetically engineered seeds with improved resistance to insects and drought. Paarlbert places the blame, not on the African countries themselves, but wealthy countries who prevent the use of this new technology. The book describes how modern agricultural technologies are being kept out of Africa. The book's forewords are written by Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug and Former President Jimmy Carter.
The third book is a convergence of views written by a husband and wife team, one an organic farmer and one a plant geneticist at UC-Davis. Pamela Ronald is Chair of the Plant Genomics Program and Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of California at Davis. Raoul Adamchak has been an organic farmer for over twenty years, has served as an inspector for the California Certified Organic Farmers, and currently works at U.C.- Davis as the Market Garden Coordinator at the certified organic student farm on campus. Their book, Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food, argues that a judicious blend of organic agriculture and genetic engineering may be a key to feeding the world's growing population. Low input sustainable agriculture and the use of genetically engineered crops often have the same goals - to reduce the amount of pesticides and herbicides used on our crops. At a time when both sides are shouting at one another, compromise might be in order!
A disclaimer: The book title hyperlinks are for Amazon.com and provided for convenience only. Books can be obtained through a variety of book sellers.