Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding

by Noel Kingsbury

Disheartened by the shrink-wrapped, Styrofoam-packed state of contemporary supermarket fruits and vegetables, many shoppers hark back to a more innocent time, to visions of succulent red tomatoes plucked straight from the vine, gleaming orange carrots pulled from loamy brown soil, swirling heads of green lettuce basking in the sun.

With Hybrid , Noel Kingsbury reveals that even those imaginary perfect foods are themselves far from anything that could properly be called natural; rather, they represent the end of a millennia-long history of selective breeding and hybridization. Starting his story at the birth of agriculture, Kingsbury traces the history of human attempts to make plants more reliable, productive, and nutritious—a story that owes as much to accident and error as to innovation and experiment. Drawing on historical and scientific accounts, as well as a rich trove of anecdotes, Kingsbury shows how scientists, amateur breeders, and countless anonymous farmers and gardeners slowly caused the evolutionary pressures of nature to be supplanted by those of human needs—and thus led us from sparse wild grasses to succulent corn cobs, and from mealy, white wild carrots to the juicy vegetables we enjoy today. At the same time, Kingsbury reminds us that contemporary controversies over the Green Revolution and genetically modified crops are not new; plant breeding has always had a political dimension.

A powerful reminder of the complicated and ever-evolving relationship between humans and the natural world, Hybrid will give readers a thoughtful new perspective on—and a renewed appreciation of—the cereal crops, vegetables, fruits, and flowers that are central to our way of life.

Genres: Science, Gardening, Nonfiction, Agriculture, Plants, Food, History

493 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plant breeding and the humans who engage in it...interesting in the "grand march of potted histories" context. Nicely designed, and its treatment of Japan is not bad. Pros: situated in the same chapter another "late developing" countries, like Germany and China (only one itty-bitty page devoted to the "revolution" in ag for China, though, lame). Oddly he credits Tokugawa era rice for breeding the strains that would ultimately fuel the Green Revolution (66). But most wrong-headedly, the book's flatfooted social agenda is rather surprising to find on UC Press' list. First, it's pro-GMO agenda goes against the grain of the tasteful heirloom(esque) tomatoes one finds on the cover. Visually, the book screams "heirloom," which are non-GMO derived edibles that date before the 1950s, before GMOs and before atomics. The bait and switch is consistent in the prose part of the book--false consciousness by the rules. The author is a pretty fervent believer, and I would even say ideologue, in promoting GMOs. Although this is buried in the Conclusion, its rhetorical strategy builds on the historicist "humans have always intervened in this 'nature'--since classical times!" narrative that structures the book. Two sentences will suffice: 1) "TO begin to assess how GM [why not GMO, the accepted terminology, one wonders?] fits into the plant breeding story is one reason to get a broad perspective over time" (399). Et voilà, the longue durée relativization argument: look, the dinosaurs did it, what's the matter with you? The past is literally a "mirror" for the present, a metaphorical way of saying there really is no change, or history. When you see the claim "plant breeding has progressed" in the next line, it is clear that "progressed" is not itself a metaphor for any kind of change, it really means movement toward today's perfectibility or, in ideological terms, modernization theory. 2) "Gene manipulation is clearly of a different order to [careful Britishism here, evoking authority...American English, of whose domain UC Press is presumably the custodian, would say 'than' in this relational context] tribal farmers picking over their crops for next year's seeds, and *yet there is a logic* about the way that plant breeding history has progressed" (409, asterisks mine). Again, "progressed." He continues to evoke Frankenstein as a novel of fear-mongering, and define GM[O] techniques as a science whose time has come, in a very tautological way--GM is a science whose time has come in science. What? He goes on with the classic lumping and splitting tactics of rhetorical modernizers: fear defies historical pattern, science in the industry (of biotech) says testing is unnecessary and inexpensive, and no health problems have been detected from GM organisms. And lastly, any opposition to one facet of GM technique is an opposition to all plant breeding--which has, of course, gone on since the dawn of dinosaurs and time. The Conclusion(s) are a masterwork of rhetoric. This owes, perhaps, to the classical sleights of hand available in such a full and continuous interpretation of the archive. Worth reading somewhere, but not buying. And the mod theory arguments that bridge between classical area studies and mod global politics are clearly visible here, and nicely ornamented, so there is less trudging than in policy documents to get the same point. The biblio is traceable. And it's a good object lesson in books and covers. I'm disappointed in UC Press, as not only is the book crafted deceptively, but anyone in Chicago knows the fate of downstate agro-business and its discontents well enough not to swallow this story whole. Or maybe the editor didn't read the book. In any case, it's another strong argument for critically reading the crossover book. One so much wants to see "hands-on" books coming from academic presses, but this is not the right paradigm shift.

[Rayburn Wilkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very precise

A bit lagging at times the author kind of bit on several thing without making a solid d point about anything I wouldn't re-read this book.

[Mark Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really enjoyable and sweeping history of crops over the last 10,000 years. While proper F1 hybrids were certainly a focus of the story, it was more broadly about crop improvements.

I really enjoy books like this that wrestle with big ideas on a global, multi-millennial level. While I do come from a very technical background, I’m certainly not a scientist or a biologist, and I found this book very accessible.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

great parts but other parts not so interesting

[Clivemichael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive coverage of a complex cascade of connected events. Tediously presented, list like, jumping back and forth in time. Interesting and well researched appears to have included everyone who ever participated. His scientific objectivity seems compromised by this statement: ”There is nothing to suggest the GM technology inherently involves higher risks, to plant health, human health, or the environment.” Along with a tendency to polarize the arguments and completely miss the point that we are living on a finite planet.

[E.J. Matze]

2
This was advertised for in one of the literature-magazines I obtained chez Selexys Donner Rotterdam.