Enduring Seeds: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation - Softcover

Nabhan, Gary Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816522596 ISBN 13: 9780816522590

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2002

Synopsis

As biological diversity continues to shrink at an alarming rate, the loss of plant species poses a threat seemingly less visible than the loss of animals but in many ways more critical. In this book, one of America's leading ethnobotanists warns about our loss of natural vegetation and plant diversity while providing insights into traditional Native agricultural practices in the Americas.

Gary Paul Nabhan here reveals the rich diversity of plants found in tropical forests and their contribution to modern crops, then tells how this diversity is being lost to agriculture and lumbering. He then relates "local parables" of Native American agriculture—from wild rice in the Great Lakes region to wild gourds in Florida—that convey the urgency of this situation and demonstrate the need for saving the seeds of endangered plants. Nabhan stresses the need for maintaining a wide gene pool, not only for the survival of these species but also for the preservation of genetic strains that can help scientists breed more resilient varieties of other plants.

Enduring Seeds is a book that no one concerned with our environment can afford to ignore. It clearly shows us that, as agribusiness increasingly limits the food on our table, a richer harvest can be had by preserving ancient ways.

This edition features a new foreword by Miguel Altieri, one of today's leading spokesmen for sustainable agriculture and the preservation of indigenous farming methods.

About this title

About the Author:

A MacArthur Fellow and recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, Gary Paul Nabhan is Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University.

From Publishers Weekly:

Few of us are familiar with the Okeechobee gourd of the wild sunflower Helianthus exilus , yet these plants are the source of improved garden squash and sunflowers. We need to draw on wild plants for certain qualitiesresistance to disease, insect and drought, tolerance to salt in the soil; the current rate of vegetation destruction in diminishing the availabiity of wild plant resources. Nabhan, assistant director of Phoenix's Desert Botanical Garden and author of The Desert Smells Like Rain , here discusses desert ecology, native American agriculture and wild seed conservation. He looks at centuries of plant culture in the Southwest and takes us to dry tropical forests of Central America where seed agriculture probably originated. Nabhan focuses on specific crops: wild rice, sunflowers, gourds and the "factory" turkey; the latter exemplifies a shallow gene pool (Indians bred turkeys selectively for feathers). Nabhan also reports on seed-conservation groups and their efforts to re-introduce old seeds into the ecosystem. This is for readers interested in ecology, especially for gardeners, farmers, botanists.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0816522596
• ISBN 13: 9780816522590
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 225