The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food

By Janisse Ray

Book Overview

There is no despair in a seed. There's only life, waiting for the right conditions-sun and water, warmth and soil-to be set free. Everyday, millions upon millions of seeds lift their two green wings.

At no time in our history have Americans been more obsessed with food. Options including those for local, sustainable, and organic food-seem limitless. And yet, our food supply is profoundly at risk. Farmers and gardeners a century ago had five times the possibilities of what to plant than farmers and gardeners do today; we are losing untold numbers of plant varieties to genetically modified industrial monocultures. In her latest work of literary nonfiction, award-winning author and activist Janisse Ray argues that if we are to secure the future of food, we first must understand where it all begins: the seed.

The Seed Underground is a journey to the frontier of seed-saving. It is driven by stories, both the author's own and those from people who are waging a lush and quiet revolution in thousands of gardens across America to preserve our traditional cornucopia of food by simply growing old varieties and eating them. The Seed Underground pays tribute to time-honored and threatened varieties, deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds, and reveals the astonishing characters who grow, study, and save them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1603583068
• ISBN13: 9781603583060
• Release Date: July 2012
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Author is spot on about the plight of our food supply.

Author is spot on about our dwindling seed supply and diversity of our food ways. Everyone should read this book!

Poor quality, unknowledgeable, inaccurate depictions

The author writes based on opinion rather than facts and does not depict accurately modern farming practices, has a skewed view on food security. Lack of common sense is apparent.