What do you think?
Rate this book
Food's Frontier: The Next Green Revolution
Food's Frontier provides a survey of pioneering agricultural research projects underway in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, India, China, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru by a writer both well-grounded technically and sensitive to social and cultural issues. The book starts from the premise that the "Green Revolution" which averted mass starvation a generation ago is not a long-term solution to global food needs and has created its own very serious problems. Based on increasing yields by extensive use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and monoculture--agribusiness-style production of single crops--this approach has poisoned both land and farm workers, encouraged new strains of pests that are resistant to ever-increasing amounts of pesticides, and killed the fertility of land by growing single crops rather than rotating crops that can replenish nutrients in the soil. Solutions to these problems are coming from a reexamination of ancient methods of agriculture that have allowed small-scale productivity over many generations. Research in the developing world, based on alternative methods and philosophies, indigenous knowledge, and native crops, joined with cutting edge technology, offer hope for a more lasting solution to the world's increasing food needs.
- GenresNonfictionScienceFood
225 pages, Paperback
First published September 29, 2001
76 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 2, 2013
I picked this up on a whim while scanning the shelf at the APL; I'd read Manning's excellent Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization, which I think led me to more excellent recommendations than any other book I've read. Food's Frontier is a completely different kind of book. Manning really doesn't make an argument. Instead, he writes a vignette explaining the context and goals of each o the McKnight foundation's grant-funded projects in sustainable agriculture in the developing world.
The projects all center around removing an obstacle to yield increase - this is probably the reason that Manning continually frames the research as an attempt to extend, revitalize, or repeat the Green Revolution. The comparison is straightforward in some projects, where breeders are literally attempting to do the Green Revolution's classic short-stemmed modification on more obscure plants like teff and chickpeas. Other cases are more interesting.
Manning does an excellent job at communicating the complex interactions of ecology, culture, cuisine, and economics involved in each situation, the factors that make them both fascinatingly unique and frustratingly intractable. In China, scientists are attempting to genetically modify a microbial symbiont of the ricehopper that carries rice stripe virus to produce a vaccine to protect the rice. In Chile and Brazil, potato production involves massive pesticide overuse, a problem that could be overcome by breeding in sticky hairs, a trait wild potatoes use to trap insect predators - a system that has the advantage of being immune to simple biochemical arms race escalation.
The most interesting projects also seemed the least clear. One delved into the traditional agroforestry and permaculture practices perpetuated by only a few villages in rural Mexico. The system is fascinating and in danger from encroaching industrial ag, but I don't even know what McKnight was trying to do about it. Record it? Support it? Either way, it was fun to read about.
As much as the book jacket might make you think Manning is writing about some big issue in agriculture, this really is a book without a thesis or argument. It is chiefly descriptive, and for that it is great. But Manning does make some really nice arguments (I think he's great and love to hear his perspectives) about agriculture. He has particularly incisive things to say about GMOs.
"It takes some stretch of the imagination to agree with critics' charge that genetic modification could create an environmental catastrophe, but we know for sure that farming is already an environmental catastrophe."
Speaking more broadly, he means that whether genetic modification in the lab is involved is nearly irrelevant. What we should be concerned about in agriculture are more prosaic down to earth concerns: does making this change help the flora and fauna of the area, or hurt them? Does it help the nutritional status of local communities, or hurt it? Does it benefit local farmers and their children, or large foreign/elite corporations? Does it require inputs of imported and non-renewable resources? Is it sustainable? The answer to all of these questions can be negative in an organic system, a traditional peasant system, a progressive peasant system benefiting from research and new varieties, and even a progressive permaculture system, as much as in an industrial context. It's just that, when your goal is to help people and the planet, you're more likely to accomplish that than you are if your goal is to profit at any cost.
For instance, many of the organic and breeding solutions applied to pest management suffer from the same problems as GMO pest resistance: the chemical arms race. Breeding corn to produce Bt (not legally organic) is no different from spraying Bt (certifiably organic) from the point of view of resistance. Solitary bees don't care if you use pyrethrin (OG) or DDT. It's about the system, and the consequences, not the ideology.
Manning does a lot of interviews with scientists and portrays them in an unusually human and compelling way, rare even among good pop science. He should be commended for that!
The projects all center around removing an obstacle to yield increase - this is probably the reason that Manning continually frames the research as an attempt to extend, revitalize, or repeat the Green Revolution. The comparison is straightforward in some projects, where breeders are literally attempting to do the Green Revolution's classic short-stemmed modification on more obscure plants like teff and chickpeas. Other cases are more interesting.
Manning does an excellent job at communicating the complex interactions of ecology, culture, cuisine, and economics involved in each situation, the factors that make them both fascinatingly unique and frustratingly intractable. In China, scientists are attempting to genetically modify a microbial symbiont of the ricehopper that carries rice stripe virus to produce a vaccine to protect the rice. In Chile and Brazil, potato production involves massive pesticide overuse, a problem that could be overcome by breeding in sticky hairs, a trait wild potatoes use to trap insect predators - a system that has the advantage of being immune to simple biochemical arms race escalation.
The most interesting projects also seemed the least clear. One delved into the traditional agroforestry and permaculture practices perpetuated by only a few villages in rural Mexico. The system is fascinating and in danger from encroaching industrial ag, but I don't even know what McKnight was trying to do about it. Record it? Support it? Either way, it was fun to read about.
As much as the book jacket might make you think Manning is writing about some big issue in agriculture, this really is a book without a thesis or argument. It is chiefly descriptive, and for that it is great. But Manning does make some really nice arguments (I think he's great and love to hear his perspectives) about agriculture. He has particularly incisive things to say about GMOs.
"It takes some stretch of the imagination to agree with critics' charge that genetic modification could create an environmental catastrophe, but we know for sure that farming is already an environmental catastrophe."
Speaking more broadly, he means that whether genetic modification in the lab is involved is nearly irrelevant. What we should be concerned about in agriculture are more prosaic down to earth concerns: does making this change help the flora and fauna of the area, or hurt them? Does it help the nutritional status of local communities, or hurt it? Does it benefit local farmers and their children, or large foreign/elite corporations? Does it require inputs of imported and non-renewable resources? Is it sustainable? The answer to all of these questions can be negative in an organic system, a traditional peasant system, a progressive peasant system benefiting from research and new varieties, and even a progressive permaculture system, as much as in an industrial context. It's just that, when your goal is to help people and the planet, you're more likely to accomplish that than you are if your goal is to profit at any cost.
For instance, many of the organic and breeding solutions applied to pest management suffer from the same problems as GMO pest resistance: the chemical arms race. Breeding corn to produce Bt (not legally organic) is no different from spraying Bt (certifiably organic) from the point of view of resistance. Solitary bees don't care if you use pyrethrin (OG) or DDT. It's about the system, and the consequences, not the ideology.
Manning does a lot of interviews with scientists and portrays them in an unusually human and compelling way, rare even among good pop science. He should be commended for that!
September 28, 2008
by visiting nine regions around the world where a foundation has granted money towards research into increasing food security, manning presents a picture of the cutting-edge technology and ideas in plant science. it would be easy to try to cut this down to an argument for or against genetically modifying crops, but to simplify the issue would go against the whole point of the book, and narrow the broad focus to only the most controversial method of the many the scientists are using. overall the picture formed leans more towards developing knowledge of the entire environment a plant is grown in before tinkering with anything, not modifying solely for economic gain without considering the potential environmental hazards (like round-up ready crops), and studying the existing wealth of knowledge in plants that have adapted to fit their specific terrain and pests, as well as working closely with local farmers. this is an easy book to read, that places the pros and cons of development in the real world, and is definitely educational no matter what side of the science debate you're on.
"the broader themes, the hallmarks of emerging agriculture, involve increasing complexity and diversity - not relying on seed alone but incorporating the power of genetics into a system with broad integrity. solutions will vary with location. one size will not fit all. the array of crops will become more diverse, especially when drawn from the genetically stored wisdom of native plants and forgotten crops. cultural practices will become increasingly important. local information will drive the process. farming will become more attentive to its broader environmental context, not only by degrading it less, but by tapping natural forces for assistance."
"the broader themes, the hallmarks of emerging agriculture, involve increasing complexity and diversity - not relying on seed alone but incorporating the power of genetics into a system with broad integrity. solutions will vary with location. one size will not fit all. the array of crops will become more diverse, especially when drawn from the genetically stored wisdom of native plants and forgotten crops. cultural practices will become increasingly important. local information will drive the process. farming will become more attentive to its broader environmental context, not only by degrading it less, but by tapping natural forces for assistance."
March 16, 2008
An interesting take on issues facing agriculture in developing countries and possible solutions. A journalist's account - not that of an expert in the issues - so the discussion of issues seems incomplete in some ways, but also has quite a bit of interesting information.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews