Back to the roots of crop farming

Abstract

The 'food crisis', lately top of the news agenda, has been displaced by economic woes. But as Joachim von Braun explains, recent events have made food shortages even more likely, and concerted international action is needed if people are not to starve. In Where Our Food Comes From, Gary Paul Nabhan constructs a history of agricultural biodiversity by following in the tracks of Russian botanist Nikolay Vavilov, who before being jailed by Stalin, was first to identify the world's centres of crop diversity. With the benefit of the long view provided by Vavilov and his own work as a conservationist, Nabhan makes the case for systems based on traditional forms of agriculture as the basis for another, much needed, 'green revolution'.