Nature of Crops, The: How we came to eat the plants we doAuthor :
Paperback
Published : Friday 24 April 2015
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Paperback
24 Apr 2015
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€24.63
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Description
Our ancestors chose to cultivate some plant species and not others. Through years of association with humans, these wild plants have been changed so that the crops we eat often hardly resemble their wild progenitors. Arranged into broad themes depicting the history of domestication, this book documents the history and biology of over 40 crops.
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? Answering all these questions and more in a readable and friendly style, this book takes 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: -Why the Egyptians worshipped onions; -Why red-flowering runner beans provide fewer beans than white-flowering; -The inherent dangers of being a pineapple worker; and -Why a bird will always beat you in a chilli pepper eating competition!
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