Scott Chaskey--working farmer, poet, and spiritual father of the
community farming movement--considers the web of biodiversity and
resilience at the heart of our cultural inheritance by masterfully
weaving history, politics, botany, literature, mythology, and memoir
into a beautiful and instructive book.
It's hard to think of a subject more fundamental to the sustenance of
the human race than seeds. Having coevolved with the Earth's plants,
insects, and animals, seeds are entwined with the core myths of ancient
cultures and the development of human consciousness. Their story remains
vitally important today, as the corporations that manufacture GMOs
threaten our food security and the future of seed-cultivated
agriculture.
The stakes, for those concerned with preserving biodiversity and
ecological integrity, are high. Balancing a wide view of politics and
history, Chaskey alights from life on the farm he has cultivated for 25
years to conjure Gregor Mendel's breeding experiments that yielded our
modern understanding of genetics; he also introduces us to several
bioneers, such as the geobotanist Nikolay Vavilov and agriculturalist
Cary Fowler, who are preserving global biodiversity through seeds.
Integrating scholarship with accessible storytelling, Seedtime is a
celebration as well as a call to action urging us to renew our role as
citizens of nature, in ecologist Aldo Leopold's phrase, not as
conquerors of it.
