By the year 2050, Earth's population will double. If we continue with current farming practices, vast amounts of wilderness will be lost, millions of birds and billions of insects will die, and the public will lose billions of dollars as a consequence of environmental degradation. Clearly, there must be a better way to meet the need for increased food production.
Written as part memoir, part instruction, and part contemplation, Tomorrow's Table argues that a judicious blend of two important strands of agriculture—genetic engineering and organic farming—is key to helping feed the world's growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. Pamela Ronald, a geneticist, and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, take the reader inside their lives for roughly a year, allowing us to look over their shoulders so that we can see what geneticists and organic farmers actually do. The reader sees the problems that farmers face, trying to provide larger yields without resorting to expensive or environmentally hazardous chemicals, a problem that will loom larger and larger as the century progresses. They learn how organic farmers and geneticists address these problems.
This book is for consumers, farmers, and policy decision makers who want to make food choices and policy that will support ecologically responsible farming practices. It is also for anyone who wants accurate information about organic farming, genetic engineering, and their potential impacts on human health and the environment.
ISBN-13: 9780199342082
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 04-10-2018
Pages: 376
Product Dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Pamela C. Ronald is a Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis. Her laboratory has genetically engineered rice for resistance to diseases and flooding. Her work has been published in Science, Nature, and other scientific periodicals and has also been featured in newspapers including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Le Monde. She is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Raoul Adamchak has grown organic crops for twenty years, part of the time as a partner in Full Belly Farm, a private 150-acre organic vegetable farm. He has inspected over one hundred organic farms as an inspector for California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and served as a member and President of CCOF's Board of Directors. He now works at the U.C., Davis as the Market Garden Coordinator at the certified organic farm on campus.
Table of Contents
Foreword to the First Edition by Sir Gordon Conway
Foreword to the Second Edition by Michael Specter
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Part I: Introduction
1. Green Revolution 2.0
Part II: The Farm
2. Why Organic Agriculture?
3. The Tools of Organic Agriculture
Part III: The Laboratory
4. The Tools of Genetic Engineering
Part IV: Consumers
5. Legislating Lunch
6. Whom Can We Trust?
7. Are Genetically Engineered Foods Safe to Eat?
8. The Mistrust of Science
Part V: The Environment
9. Conserving Wildlands
10. Weeds, Gene Flow, and the Environment
Part VI: Ownership
11. Who Owns the Seed?
12. The Seed Industry: Accelerating or Impeding Innovation?
Part VII: The World
13. Feeding the World Ethically
14. Choosing Innovation
Part VIII: Dinner
15. Deconstructing Dinner: Genetically Engineered, Organically Grown
Glossary
References
Index
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