Seedtime
Subtitle: on the history, husbandry, politics, and promise of seeds
By: Scott Chaskey
Publisher: Rodale
Published: 2014
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
ISBN-13: 9781609615031
Subjects: Seeds
Other titles: On the history, husbandry, politics, and promise of seeds
Description: Scott Chaskey--working farmer, poet, and spiritual father of the community farming movement--considers "the web of biodiversity and resilience at the heart of our cultural inheritance" by masterfully weaving history, politics, botany, literature, mythology, and memoir into a beautiful and instructive book.It's hard to think of a subject more fundamental to the sustenance of the human race than seeds. Having coevolved with the Earth's plants, insects, and animals, seeds are entwined with the core myths of ancient cultures and the development of human consciousness. Their story remains vitally important today, as the corporations that manufacture GMOs threaten our food security and the future of seed-cultivated agriculture.The stakes, for those concerned with preserving biodiversity and ecological integrity, are high.Balancing a wide view of politics and history, Chaskey alights from life on the farm he has cultivated for 25 years to conjure Gregor Mendel's breeding experiments that yielded our modern understanding of genetics; he also introduces us to several "bioneers," such as the geobotanist Nikolay Vavilov and agriculturalist Cary Fowler, who are preserving global biodiversity through seeds. Integrating scholarship with accessible storytelling, Seedtime is a celebration as well as a call to action urging us to renew our role as citizens of nature, in ecologist Aldo Leopold's phrase, not as conquerors of it.
Notes: Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Furnished with wings and plumes; title: Time's best jewel; title: "A seed is a book"; title: Acrobatic time; title: Round seeds, wrinkled seeds; title: What a find!; title: The memory of life; title: Svalbard; title: A kind of earth nut; title: Ripeness is all; title: Trust in allium sativum; title: Seed freedom; title: In search of a story.