Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine (edition 2011)

by Gary Paul Nabhan

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The future of our food depends on tiny seeds in orchards and fields the world over. In 1943, one of the first to recognize this fact, the great botanist Nikolay Vavilov, lay dying of starvation in a Soviet prison. But in the years before Stalin jailed him as a scapegoat for the country's famines, Vavilov had traveled over five continents, collecting hundreds of thousands of seeds in an effort to outline the ancient centers of agricultural diversity and guard against widespread hunger. Now, another remarkable scientist-and vivid storyteller-has retraced his footsteps. In Where Our Food Comes Fr… (more)

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Member:	TishmanCenter
Title:	Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine
Authors:	Gary Paul Nabhan
Info:	Island Press (2011), Edition: 1, Paperback, 266 pages
Collections:	All Books, Available, Nevin Cohen Collection
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Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine by Gary Paul Nabhan

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This really two books in one, both required reading on the subject of crop diversity and its importance to food security. The first is the incredible biography of N. I. Vavilov, the Stalin-era Russian plant scientist who traveled five continents studying crop diversity and collecting seeds for the first modern seed bank. The second is Nabhan's retracing of some of Vavilov's travels and commenting how the changes he is seeing illustrate how climate change, economics, and genetic engineering are affecting the world's food supplies.

Nabhan is a scientist as well as a great storyteller and travel writer, telling a fascinating tale that matters. (

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Cyclisto | Mar 3, 2010 |

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The future of our food depends on tiny seeds in orchards and fields the world over. In 1943, one of the first to recognize this fact, the great botanist Nikolay Vavilov, lay dying of starvation in a Soviet prison. But in the years before Stalin jailed him as a scapegoat for the country's famines, Vavilov had traveled over five continents, collecting hundreds of thousands of seeds in an effort to outline the ancient centers of agricultural diversity and guard against widespread hunger. Now, another remarkable scientist-and vivid storyteller-has retraced his footsteps. In Where Our Food Comes Fr

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