First the Seed spotlights the history of plant breeding and shows how efforts to control the seed have shaped the emergence of the agricultural biotechnology industry. This second edition of a classic work in the political economy of science includes an extensive, new chapter updating the analysis to include the most recent developments in the struggle over the direction of crop genetic engineering. 1988 Cloth, 1990 Paperback, Cambridge University Press Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Award of the Agricultural History Society Winner of the Robert K. Merton Award of the American Sociological Association

This history of the scientific and commercial lines of plant development in the United States traces the transformation of the seed from a public good produced and reproduced by farmers into a commodity controlled by businesses and corporations divorced from the uses of their product.

Seeds provide half of the calories consumed by humans today and helped grow human civilization. Just ten crops (rice, maize, wheat, potatoes, etc.) provide 75% of human energy needs. Seeds: A Natural History unearths the evolution of seeds from the time before dinosaurs to how they became our primary source of calories and protein today. Using vivid photos of seeds, which invite readers to appreciate their diversity of form and function, along with a text by an award winning science journalist and writer, Seeds harvests the importance of the nature and productivity of seeds. And to complete the narrative arc, Seeds shows how modern scientific techniques of genetic profiling, seed banking, and plant breeding may be the answer to humanity’s future. Seeds and humans have had a bountiful history and this book captures the scientific, artistic, and economic vitality of these incredible natural packages.