Chasing the red queen : the evolutionary race between agricultural pests and poisons /
Dyer, Andyauthor.
In the race to feed the worlds seven billion people, we are at a standstill. Over the past century, we have developed increasingly potent and sophisticated pesticides, yet in 2014, the average percentage of U.S. crops lost to agricultural pests was no less than in 1944. To use a metaphor the field of evolutionary biology borrowed from Alice in Wonderland, farmers must run ever faster to stay in the same placei.e., produce the same yields. With Chasing the Red Queen, Andy Dyer offers the first book to apply the Red Queen Hypothesis to agriculture. Dyer examines one of the worlds most pressing problems as a biological case study. He presents key concepts, from Darwins principles of natural selection to genetic variation and adaptive phenotypes. Understanding the fundamentals of ecology and biology is the first step to playing the Red Queen, and escaping her unwinnable race. The books novel frame will help students, researchers, and policy-makers alike apply that knowledge to the critical task of achieving food security.
Description based on online resource ; title from PDF title page (EBSCO; viewed on January 9, 2015).
Includes bibliographical references and index.
In the race to feed the worlds seven billion people, we are at a standstill. Over the past century, we have developed increasingly potent and sophisticated pesticides, yet in 2014, the average percentage of U.S. crops lost to agricultural pests was no less than in 1944. To use a metaphor the field of evolutionary biology borrowed from Alice in Wonderland, farmers must run ever faster to stay in the same placei.e., produce the same yields. With Chasing the Red Queen, Andy Dyer offers the first book to apply the Red Queen Hypothesis to agriculture. Dyer examines one of the worlds most pressing problems as a biological case study. He presents key concepts, from Darwins principles of natural selection to genetic variation and adaptive phenotypes. Understanding the fundamentals of ecology and biology is the first step to playing the Red Queen, and escaping her unwinnable race. The books novel frame will help students, researchers, and policy-makers alike apply that knowledge to the critical task of achieving food security.
Title Page; Copyright; contents; preface; PART I: Introducing the Red Queen; Chapter 1: The Never-Ending Race: Adaptation and Environmental Stress; Chapter 2: The Evolution of Farming: Scaling Up Productivity; The Advent of Farming; Early Uses of Technology; Farming Now; Pesticides Are Not Antibiotics for the Farm; The Changing Landscape of Farming; Growing Food or Making Food?; Chapter 3: Survival of the Fittest: Darwin's Principles; PART II: Ignoring the Red Queen; Chapter 4: Reductionist Farming: Losing Ecosystem Services; Chapter 5: A Weed by Any Other Name: Monocultures and Wild Species
Chapter 6: Running Faster: Insecticide and Herbicide ResistanceChemical Solutions; Herbicides; Insecticides; Costs to Farmers and the World; PART III: Trying to Beat the Red Queen; Chapter 7: Exercises in Futility: Cases of Resistance; The Clear Lake Gnat and DDD; The Green Peach Aphid and Everything; Chapter 8: King Cotton vs. the Red Queen; The Simple Days of Growing Cotton; Growing Cotton Today; The Red Queen Trumps King Cotton; Chapter 9: The Cornucopia of Maize vs. the Red Queen; Chapter 10: The Red Queen Trumps Technology: The Failures of Biotech; Biotech Solutions and New Problems
Failure Proves the Evolutionary RulePART IV: Playing the Red Queen; Chapter 11: Understanding the Chase to Escape the Cycle; Chapter 12: Slowing the Race by Slowing the Attack; Strategy 1: Use a greater variety of chemical modes of action; Strategy 2: Use a combination of modes of action.; Strategy 3: Reduce the intensity, slow the response.; Strategy 4: Increase natural controls.; Strategy 5: Reduce spatial scale, increase connectivity.; Chapter 13: Ecosystem Farming: Letting Nature Do the Work; Chapter 14: Integrated Systems and Long-Term Stability; An Early Voice of Caution
A Good Start in AustraliaOn American Soil; Putting Out Fires in California; Chapter 15: Epilogue: Putting All of Our Eggsin a Diversity of Baskets; Notes; Index
Pesticide resistance.
Evolution (Biology)
Agricultural ecology.
Agricultural ecology.
Evolution (Biology)
Pesticide resistance.

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