Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future

Dunn (applied ecology, North Carolina State Univ., Natural History Museum of Denmark, Univ. of Copenhagen; The Man Who Touched His Own Heart) argues that modern science has had an adverse effect on food production: crops are bred and cloned so that people have a boundless surplus, and the process is simplified so that food tastes the same each time. The author begins with the history of the banana and its vulnerability to a pathogen that could kill the fruit. He describes how cacao is one of the most endangered crops in the world because of the disease witches' broom. Dunn also devotes a chapter to Henry Ford's agricultural legacy and how the invention of cars and tractors has affected urban and suburban ways of life. Overall, this book explains how scientists are trying to change the artificial production of food, which in turn will help society. Although this volume is thoroughly researched, with many scholarly sources cited, it's accessible, and general readers will find it comprehensible.