{"product_id":"shattering-food-politics-and-the-loss-of-genetic-diversity-9781632261601","title":"Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe industrial consolidation of agriculture is systematically destroying the genetic diversity of our crops, recreating the conditions for famine in an age of technological agriculture.\u003ci\u003e Shattering\u003c\/i\u003e is an expert look at the dramatic decline of genetic diversity in agriculture, and the threat it poses to our food supply.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was through control of the shattering of wild seeds that humans first domesticated plants. Now control over those very plants threatens to shatter the world's food supply, as loss of genetic diversity sets the stage for widespread hunger.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLarge-scale agriculture has come to favor uniformity in food crops. More than 7,000 U.S. apple varieties once grew in American orchards; 6,000 of them are no longer available. Every broccoli variety offered through seed catalogs in 1900 has now disappeared. As the international genetics supply industry absorbs seed companies--with nearly one thousand takeovers since 1970--this trend toward uniformity seems likely to continue; and as third world agriculture is brought in line with international business interests, the gene pools of humanity's most basic foods are threatened.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe consequences are more than culinary. Without the genetic diversity from which farmers traditionally breed for resistance to diseases, crops are more susceptible to the spread of pestilence. Tragedies like the Irish Potato Famine may be thought of today as ancient history; yet the U.S. corn blight of 1970 shows that technologically based agribusiness is a breeding ground for disaster.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eShattering\u003c\/i\u003e reviews the development of genetic diversity over 10,000 years of human agriculture, then exposes its loss in our lifetime at the hands of political and economic forces. The possibility of crisis is real; this book shows that it may not be too late to avert it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book was originally published in 1990 and remains as relevant today as it was then.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Prospecta Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/11\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781632261601\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 280\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.84lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.90d","brand":"Cary Fowler,Pat Mooney","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52715556044981,"sku":"9781632261601","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/shattering-food-politics-and-the-loss-of-genetic-diversity-9781632261601","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}