Customer Reviews

Enduring Seeds: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation

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Paul Nabhan's latest book is a delight to read. His clear writing style and effective way of illustrating important points gives the reader a pleasant break from the more technical books on the topic of seed evolution and dispersion. But don't be deceived by its ease of reading, the book is full of facts about early native agricultural practices in North and Central America, contains warnings about our loss of natural vegetation, especially rain forests, and tells of our rapid loss of plant diversity.

Dr. Nabhan is the cofounder of an organization called Native Seeds and is currently Assistant Director of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona. In these dual roles he has had ample opportunity to observe what is happening to our natural vegetation and to record how the diversity of plants in our world continues to shrink at an alarming rate.

His book is divided into a series of chapters each with names intended to draw the reader's interest. Examples include: "Turning Foxholes into Compost Heaps," "Drowning in a Shallow Gene Pool," and "Invisible Erosion." Each of his 12 chapters focuses on an important point. The first one presents an interesting history of plant evolution from the earliest Paleozoic times through the late Cenozoic and explains how the large, plant gene pool created the wonderful diversity we have all come to enjoy. In the next several chapters Dr. Nabhan first addresses the great diversity of plants found in forests of the wet and dry tropics and next speaks about how this great diversity led to the emergence of many cultigens we now depend upon for our staples. He also points with alarm to how rapidly this diversity is being lost as large areas are converted to agricultural lands or are clear cut for their lumber. Other chapters focus on the need for saving examples of seeds from plants that are becoming extinct and the advantages in tropical areas of using local plant species and local farming techniques instead of introduced hybrid plants and "modern" agricultural techniques. In later chapters Dr. Nabhan chronicles the demise of wild rice in the Great Lakes region, the near loss of a species of rare gourd in Florida, and why the production of maize in many areas of the northern Great Plains is not nearly as great today as it was in past generations. Finally, he offers a word of caution to plant geneticists saying that they could learn a lot from looking at the problems associated with the raising of domestic turkeys.

The main theme of Dr. Nabhan's book focuses on the need for plant diversity and how the maintaining of a wide gene pool for each species is critical for the survival of each species. All of this, he cautions, has direct effects upon mankind because many of these plants form elements of our primary food supply. Throughout the book the author inserts brief warnings for the reader to ponder. On page 27, for example, the author notes the prevailing attitude among many plant geneticists. He quotes one of them as saying, "If we need rare strains to breed a stronger variety of grain in the event of an epidemic, we go out and collect them." The problem, as Dr. Nabhan notes, is that already for many plants there are no longer wild strains to use.

Enduring seeds is a facinating read. The author, Gary Nahban, writes about the frigtening loss of diversity in crop varieties, their wild relatives, and the native cultures that once grew them. He explains why seed banks are not the answer to loss of diversity.

I will disclose at the start that I have met Gary Paul Nabhan and that Miguel Altieri (who wrote one of the two forwards) was a graduate student at the same time I was a postdoctoral student at the University of Florida. Both of us were being directed in our work by the late Willard Whitcomb. I spent some time at Miguel's agricultural plots and was impressed by his work. I have read or skimmed a few of Nabhan's books and was equally impressed by his depth of knowledge of native plants. "Enduring Seeds" is certainly up to his high standards.

We really don't hear much of native agriculture, apart from corn, and yet the Native American cropping system was much more complex, including not only maize (corn), but its companions beans and squash, as well as amaranth, sunflowers, cranberries, blueberries and pecans, and a number of crop plants now lost to us. As Nabhan points out the Hohokam had probably the most complex agriculture in North America with large irrigation systems and many crops, including some now not seen north of Mexico. The irrigation system they developed worked well for about 150 years and then drought and salting out, followed by floods, caused serious disruptions. Within a few hundred years they had abandoned their land. Snaketown, where Phoenix now stands, went from a thriving community of over 1000 to dry desert. Now Phoenix is copying Snaketown in an even bigger way as probably one of the least sustainable cities in the United States.

In "Enduring Seeds" Gary Paul Nabhan has delved deeply into the history to which we should pay more attention, instead of the emphasis on wars (although they certainly had their impacts). It is the history of the systems that sustain civilization that is at least as important as which general won which battle. It is also a fascinating story and Nabhan has captured it well in his book. He has also explained why, from a number of standpoints, we need to maintain the biodiversity of the planet, especially in crop plants. I urge anyone who has a stake in the future (and that is all of us) to consider reading this important volume. You will not be disappointed.

This book presents an enjoyable, thought-provoking and evocative series of essays on prehistoric and modern Native American agriculture. I recommend it to anyone interested in plant foods, how they are grown, and how they were grown before the industrialization of agriculture.

I enjoyed reading this collection of essays and am happy to have purchased it at Amazon. It introduced me to some new thoughts about the underpinnings of Amerindian agriculture and the implications of our present-day course in American agriculture and the probable outcome if it isn't changed or at least altered. It also introduced me to an unfamiliar author: his discourses were enjoyable because they were written by presenting the evidence for his particular line of thought and yet not preaching but rather allowing the reader to accept or reject on his own initiative rather than on the writer's bias. I am intending to buy other books written by him.