The Viking in the Wheat Field A Scientist's Struggle to Preserve the World's Harvest

by Dworkin, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780802778109
• ISBN10: 0802778100
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-12-21
• Publisher: Walker Books

Summary

In 1999, a terrifying new form of stem rust named Ug99 began decimating wheat crops and threatened to spread worldwide, including to America's rich wheat fields. Breeders searched seed collections for strains of wheat that were genetically resistant to Ug99. The largest collection was at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico, developed by Danish plant scientist Bent Skovmand. For thirty years, Skovmand served as adviser to dozens of countries and hunted for seeds with genes to resist stem rust and such environmental stresses as drought, flooding, and global warming. In an era when multinational corporations often jealously guarded patents on plant breeding, Skovmand fought to keep his seed bank a free, open scientific exchange for breeders and farmers everywhere. By telling the story of Skovmand and his colleagues,The Viking in the Wheat Fieldsheds welcome light on an agricultural sector--plant genetic resources--on which our food supply is crucially dependent.

Author Biography

Susan Dworkin worked briefly for the United States Department of Agriculture during the Kennedy Administration before becoming a journalist, covering foreign aid projects in Iran and Israel. She went on to write biographies of Bess Myerson, Edith Hahn Beer, and others, but she never lost her fascination for agriculture and its love-hate relationship with technology. For ten years she was a contributing editor to Ms. Magazine and has been published in Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, and other national magazines.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What It Takes to Beat a Plague	p. 1
The Expedition to America	p. 12
The Heirs of Borlaug	p. 26
The Marriage of Wheat and Rye	p. 44
Where the Wheat Begins	p. 63
Save Everything!	p. 84
The Proactive Gene Bank	p. 101
The Slippery Seeds of Tibet	p. 117
An Array of Tools	p. 128
Hamlet and Mercutio	p. 150
Dracula	p. 169
The Pea Under the Princess	p. 179
Epilogue	p. 196
Acknowledgments	p. 202
Important Collections of Wheat, Rye, Triticale, and Related Species, Worldwide	p. 204
U.S. National Plant Germplasm System	p. 207
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