How genetic engineering threatens seeds, and the story of those trying to save this most basic environmental resource Uncertain Peril is a must-read for anyone concerned about plants or the planet. --Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma Life on earth is facing unprecedented challenges from global warming, war, and mass extinctions. The plight of seeds is a less visible but no less fundamental threat to our survival. Seeds are at the heart of the planet's life-support systems. Their power to regenerate and adapt are essential to maintaining our food supply, our resistance to disease, and our ability to cope with a changing climate. And yet many people are unaware that a handful of multinational corporations are gobbling up the world's plants' genetic heritage. In Uncertain Peril, Claire Hope Cummings examines this predicament by telling the stories behind the rise of industrial agriculture and plant biotechnology, the fall of public interest science, and the folly of patenting seeds. Cummings then turns to the possibilities for a more abundant future. Green technologies and new approaches to food and farming methods provide insight and inspiration for the way forward, as well as much-needed perspective on the interdependence between plants and people. What's at stake is nothing less than the nature of the future.
Author Biography
Claire Hope Cummings is an environmental journalist specializing in stories about the environmental, health, and political implications of how we eat. For six years she produced and hosted a popular weekly public radio show on food and farming in Northern California, including a news segment called "Eater's Digest." She regularly reports on agriculture and the environment for public television in San Francisco. Cummings also writes for periodicals, webzines, and news services. She was an environmental lawyer for 20 years, including four years with the United States Department of Agriculture, then practiced environmental and cultural preservation public interest law. She has farmed in California and in Vietnam. She was a 2001 Food and Society Policy Fellow. Cummings lives in a rural area of Marin County, California. This is her first book. "From the Trade Paperback edition."
