The Nature of Crops (Paperback)

Professor John Warren

ISBN 10: 1780645090 / ISBN 13: 9781780645094

Published by CABI Publishing, Wallingford, 2015

About this Item

Paperback. Have you ever wondered why we eat wheat, rice, potatoes and cassava? Why we routinely domesticate foodstuffs with the power to kill us, or why we chose almonds over acorns? Answering all these questions and more in a readable and friendly style, this book takes you on a journey through our history with crop plants. Arranged into recurrent themes in plant domestication, this book documents the history and biology of over 50 crops, including cereals, spices, legumes, fruits and cash crops such as chocolate, tobacco and rubber. In The Nature of Crops John Warren reveals: -Why the Egyptians worshipped onions; -Why red-flowering runner beans provide fewer beans than white-flowering; -The inherent dangers of being a pineapple worker; and -Why a bird will always beat you in a chilli pepper eating competition! Our ancestors chose to cultivate some plant species and not others. Through years of association with humans, these wild plants have been changed so that the crops we eat often hardly resemble their wild progenitors. Arranged into broad themes depicting the history of domestication, this book documents the history and biology of over 40 crops. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781780645094

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Nature of Crops (Paperback)
• Publisher: CABI Publishing, Wallingford
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1780645090
• ISBN 13: 9781780645094
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Have you ever wondered why we eat wheat, rice, potatoes and cassava? Why we routinely domesticate foodstuffs with the power to kill us, or why we chose almonds over acorns? Answering all these questions and more in a readable and friendly style, this book takes you on a journey through our history with crop plants. Arranged into recurrent themes in plant domestication, this book documents the history and biology of over 50 crops, including cereals, spices, legumes, fruits and cash crops such as chocolate, tobacco and rubber.In The Nature of Crops John Warren reveals:-Why the Egyptians worshipped onions;-Why red-flowering runner beans provide fewer beans than white-flowering;-The inherent dangers of being a pineapple worker; and-Why a bird will always beat you in a chilli pepper eating competition!

About the Author

John Warren is Director of Education at Aberystwyth University. He has an academic interest in the sex-life of plants and a recreational interest in all things edible. Formally a cocoa breeder, he worked on the world chocolate gene bank at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. Whilst there he published scientific papers on the unusual sexual practices of Caribbean cocoa and also pried into the private lives of several less familiar tropical crops including the star-fruit and tree cucumber. Prior to working in the Caribbean he spent two years literally sowing wild oats at the University of Liverpool. He has made regular appearances on BBC Scotland's Beechgrove Potting Shed.