United Kingdom
April 28, 2015
Have you ever wondered why we eat wheat, rice, potatoes and cassava? Why we routinely domesticate foodstuffs with the power to kill us, or why we chose almonds over acorns?
In his new book, The Nature of Crops, John Warren answers all these questions, and more, in a readable and friendly style, taking you on a journey through our history with crop plants.
Arranged into recurrent themes in plant domestication, this book documents the history and biology of over 50 crops, including cereals, spices, legumes, fruits and cash crops such as chocolate, tobacco and rubber.
In The Nature of Crops John Warren reveals:
- The inherent dangers of being a pineapple worker;
- Why the Egyptians worshipped onions;
- Why red-flowering runner beans provide fewer beans than white-flowering; and
- Why a bird will always beat you in a chilli pepper eating competition!
John Warren is Director of Education at Aberystwyth University. Formally a cocoa breeder, he worked on the world chocolate gene bank at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. The research for this work relied heavily upon consultations with strawberry pathologists, rhubarb tasters, chocolate scientists and coffee geneticists.
If you are interested in publishing a review of this book please contact David Porter by emailing d.porter@cabi.org
For more information about the book visit http://www.cabi.org/bookshop/book/9781780645087
About CABI
CABI is an international not-for-profit organization that improves people’s lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. Our 48 member countries guide and influence our core areas of work, which include International Development and Publishing. CABI produces key scientific publications, including CAB Abstracts – the world-leading abstracting and indexing database covering applied life sciences. We also publish multimedia compendia, books, eBooks and full text electronic resources aiming to further science and its application to real life. CABI invests its publishing surpluses directly into development projects, helping to improve livelihoods worldwide.
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