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The seed underground : a growing revolution to save food / Janisse Ray.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: White River Junction, Vt. : Chelsea Green Pub., c2012.Description: xv, 217 p. ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 1603583068 (pbk.)
  • 1603583076 (ebook)
  • 9781603583060 (pbk.)
  • 9781603583077 (ebook)
Subject(s):
Contents:
More gardens, less gas -- A brief history of industrial agriculture -- Me growing up -- Sycamore -- What is broken -- A rind is a terrible thing to waste -- Losing the Conch cowpea -- Hooking up -- Sylvia's garden -- Keeping preacher beans alive -- Oakreez -- The poet who saved seed -- The anatomy of inflorescence: a quick lesson -- Red earth -- Pilgrimage to Mecca -- The pollinator -- The bad genie is out of the bottle -- Tomato man -- How to save tomato seeds -- Sweet potato queen -- Keener corn -- Getting the conch back -- Winning the mustaprovince -- Basic seed saving -- Seeds will make you a thief -- Gifts -- Seed banking -- Grassroots resistance -- Public breeding, private profit -- Breed your own -- Wheat anarchists -- A vanishing plant wisdom -- Stop walking around doing nothing -- Last stand.
Summary: Discusses the loss of fruit and vegetable varieties and the genetically modified industrial monocultures being used today, shares the author's personal experiences growing, saving, and swapping seeds, and deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 631.521 R263 Available 33111007036680
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

There is no despair in a seed. There's only life, waiting for the right conditions-sun and water, warmth and soil-to be set free. Everyday, millions upon millions of seeds lift their two green wings.

At no time in our history have Americans been more obsessed with food. Options including those for local, sustainable, and organic food-seem limitless. And yet, our food supply is profoundly at risk. Farmers and gardeners a century ago had five times the possibilities of what to plant than farmers and gardeners do today; we are losing untold numbers of plant varieties to genetically modified industrial monocultures. In her latest work of literary nonfiction, award-winning author and activist Janisse Ray argues that if we are to secure the future of food, we first must understand where it all begins: the seed.

The Seed Underground is a journey to the frontier of seed-saving. It is driven by stories, both the author's own and those from people who are waging a lush and quiet revolution in thousands of gardens across America to preserve our traditional cornucopia of food by simply growing old varieties and eating them. The Seed Underground pays tribute to time-honored and threatened varieties, deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds, and reveals the astonishing characters who grow, study, and save them.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-211), filmography (p. 211), and index.

More gardens, less gas -- A brief history of industrial agriculture -- Me growing up -- Sycamore -- What is broken -- A rind is a terrible thing to waste -- Losing the Conch cowpea -- Hooking up -- Sylvia's garden -- Keeping preacher beans alive -- Oakreez -- The poet who saved seed -- The anatomy of inflorescence: a quick lesson -- Red earth -- Pilgrimage to Mecca -- The pollinator -- The bad genie is out of the bottle -- Tomato man -- How to save tomato seeds -- Sweet potato queen -- Keener corn -- Getting the conch back -- Winning the mustaprovince -- Basic seed saving -- Seeds will make you a thief -- Gifts -- Seed banking -- Grassroots resistance -- Public breeding, private profit -- Breed your own -- Wheat anarchists -- A vanishing plant wisdom -- Stop walking around doing nothing -- Last stand.

Discusses the loss of fruit and vegetable varieties and the genetically modified industrial monocultures being used today, shares the author's personal experiences growing, saving, and swapping seeds, and deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds.

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