The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food (59 page)

Carolina Gold was exported
:
See Hess,
The Carolina Rice Kitchen
, 20; and Richard Schulze,
Carolina Gold Rice: The Ebb and Flow History of a Lowcountry Cash Crop
(Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2005).

plant breeders discovered a way to farm more efficiently
:
For more on the history of plant breeding, see Noel Kingsbury,
Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009); Jonathan Silvertown,
An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009); and Jack R. Kloppenburg,
First the Seed: The Political Economy of Biotechnology
, 2nd ed. (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2004).

the Green Revolution
:
See Susan Dworkin,
The Viking in the Wheat Field: A Scientist’s Struggle to Preserve the World’s Harvest
(New York: Walker & Company, 2009); Cary Fowler and Patrick Mooney,
Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity
(Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990); Richard Manning,
Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
(New York: North Point Press, 2004); Peter Thompson,
Seeds, Sex & Civilization
; and
Roberts,
The End of Food
.

Borlaug began growing new semidwarf crosses
:
See Gregg Easterbrook, “Forgotten
Benefactor of Humanity,”
The Atlantic Monthly
, January 1, 1997; and Henry W. Kindall and David Pimentel, “Constraints on the Expansion of the Global Food Supply,”
Ambio
23, no. 3 (May 1994).

Borlaug next sent his dwarf wheat to India
:
Roberts,
The End of Food,
148–9.

From 1950 to 1992, harvests increased
:
Easterbrook, “Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity.”

more than 70 percent of the wheat grown in the developing world
:
See Maximina A. Lantican et al., “Impacts of International Wheat Breeding Research in the Developing World, 1988–2002,” Impact Studies 7654 (Mexico City: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center [CIMMYT], 2005), 30.

global increase in diet-related diseases
:
See Knut Schroeder et al.,
Sustainable Healthcare
(Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2013).

From 1950 to 2000, the amount of irrigated farmland tripled
:
See Lester Brown,
Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009); and Sandra Postel,
Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last?
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999).

“Although high-yielding varieties”
:
Vandana Shiva, “The Green Revolution in the Punjab,”
The Ecologist
21, no. 2 (March–April 1991).

“akin to the relationship of the chicken and the egg”
:
Fowler and Mooney,
Shattering
, 60.

synthetic fertilizers
 . . . not exactly green:
See Donald L. Plucknett, “Saving Lives Through Agricultural Research,” Issues in Agriculture no. 1 (Washington, DC: Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, May 1991).

more chemicals are needed to get the same kick
:
Stuart Laidlaw, “Saving Agriculture from Itself,” in
Food and Fuel: Solutions for the Future
, 10–11. Laidlaw writes, “Decades of monoculture had robbed the soil of its nutrients so that it now needed regular nitrogen applications to keep productive. Nitrogen also increases soil acidity, which slows biologic activity, hurting the soil’s ability to produce food on its own, so even more nitrogen must yet again be applied. The land, in short, is addicted to nitrogen.”

“They’re looking at the swollen belly”
:
Interview with Susan Dworkin,
Acres U.S.A.,
February 2010.

“so-called miracle varieties”
:
Vandana Shiva,
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
(Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2000), 12.

achieved with old-world farming techniques
:
See Colin Tudge,
Feeding People Is Easy
(Grosseto, Italy: Pari Publishing, 2007), 75–6.

“the result of intelligent, innovative minds”
:
Fowler and Mooney,
Shattering
, 139. For more on Vavilov, see Gary Paul Nabhan,
Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov’s Quest to End Famine
(Washington, DC: Island Press, 2009).

peasant farmers working with nature
:
See Shiva,
Stolen Harvest
,
79
.
Shiva cites a few remarkable examples:
“Indian farmers have evolved thousands of varieties of rice.
Andean farmers have bred more than 3,000 varieties of potatoes. In Papua New Guinea, more than 5,000 varieties of sweet potatoes are cultivated.”

developed and trialed by land-grant university plant breeders
:
The Mountain Magic tomato was developed by Dr. Randy Gardner at North Carolina State University’s Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center (hence the “Mountain” in its name).

Genetically modified foods
:
For more on the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods, see Daniel Charles,
Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food
(Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2001); Brian J. Ford,
The Future of Food: Prospects for Tomorrow
(London: Thames & Hudson, 2000); Craig Holdrege and Steve Talbott
, Beyond Biotechnology: The Barren Promise of Genetic Engineering
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008); Peter Pringle,
Food, Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto—The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003); Pamela C. Ronald and Raoul W. Adamchak,
Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); and Josh Schonwald,
The Taste of Tomorrow: Dispatches from the Future of Food
(New York: HarperCollins, 2012).

land-grant colleges
:
For more on land-grant institutions, see Jim Hightower,
Hard Tomatoes,
Hard Times
(Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing Company, 1973); George R. McDowell,
Land-Grant Universities and Extension into the 21st Century: Renegotiating or Abandoning a Social Contract
(Ames: Iowa State Press, 2001); and Roger L. Geiger and Nathan M. Sorber, eds.,
The Land-Grant Colleges and the Reshaping of American Higher Education
(New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2013).

“prefer to talk in terms of a ‘division of labor’”
:
Fowler and Mooney,
Shattering
, 138.

funding of agricultural research
:
See Food and Water Watch, “Public Research, Private Gain: Corporate Influence on University Agricultural Research” (Washington, DC: Food and Water Watch, April 2012); P. W. Heisey et al.,
Public Sector Plant Breeding in a Privatizing World
(Washington, DC: US Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, 2001); and Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo, “The Seed Industry in U.S. Agriculture: An Exploration of Data and Information on Crop Seed Markets, Regulation, Industry Structure, and Research and Development,” US Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 786 (2004).

older varieties contained more micronutrients than newer breeds
:
See Kevin M. Murphy, Philip G. Reeves, and Stephen S. Jones, “Relationship Between Yield and Mineral Nutrient Content in Historical and Modern Spring Wheat Cultivars,”
Euphytica
163, issue 3 (October 2008): 381–90.

“I think that the bread community”
:
Gabe Ulla, “Pizzaiolo Jim Lahey on Fire, Craft, and Tactile Pleasure,” Eater Online, May 8, 2012, http://eater.com/archives/2012/05/08/pizzaiolo-jim-lahey-on-fire-craft-and-tactile-pleasure.php#more.

“midway between youth and age”
:
George Bernard Shaw,
Too True to Be Good
(New York: Samuel French Inc., 1956), 118.

“his eyes lit up with delight”
:
Anka Muhlstein,
Balzac’s Omelette: A Delicious Tour of French Food and Culture with Honoré de Balzac
(New York: Other Press, 2011), 7.

“keep every cog and wheel”
:
Aldo Leopold, “Conservation,” in
Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold
(1953; repr., New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 147.

Ausubel, Kenny, with J. P. Harpignies, ed.,
Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies
(San Francisco, Sierra Club Books, 2004).

Balfour, Lady Eve,
The Living Soil
(London: Faber and Faber, 1943).

Buhner, Stephen Harrod,
The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth
(White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2002).

Carson
,
Rachel
,
Silent Spring
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1962).

Coleman, Eliot,
The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener
(White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 1989).

Fromartz, Samuel,
Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew
(Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2006).

Gershuny, Grace, and Joseph Smillie,
The Soul of the Soil: A Guide to Ecological Soil Management,
3rd ed. (Davis, CA: agAccess, 1995).

Graham, Michael,
Soil and Sense
(London: Faber & Faber, 1941).

Holthaus, Gary,
From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know About Agriculture
(Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2006).

Jackson, Wes,
Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture
(Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2010).

Mabey, Richard,
Weeds: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants
(New York: HarperCollins, 2010).

Morton, Oliver,
Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet
(New York: HarperCollins, 2009).

Robinson, Raoul A.,
Return to Resistance: Breeding Crops to Reduce Pesticide Dependence
(Davis, CA: agAccess, 1996).

Stoll, Steven,
The Fruits of Natural Advantage: Making the Industrial Countryside in California
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).

Sykes, Friend,
Food, Farming and the Future
(Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 1951).

Tompkins, Peter, and Christopher Bird,
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(1973; repr., New York: Harper Perennial, 1989).

Voisin, André,
Soil, Grass, and Cancer: The Link Between Human and Animal Health and the Mineral Balance of the Soil
(New York: Philosophical Library, 1959).

———,
Grass Productivity
(New York: Philosophical Library, 1959).

Walters, Charles,
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(Kansas City: Acres U.S.A., 1991).

Wedin, Walter F., and Steven L. Fales,
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(Madison, WI: American Society of Agronomy, 2009).

Willis, Harold,
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(Austin, TX: Acres USA, 2007).

Fussell, Betty,
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(Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2008).

Imhoff, Daniel, ed.,
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(Berkeley: Watershed Media, 2010).

Lappé, Frances Moore,
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(1971; repr., New York: Ballantine Books, 1991).

Nierenberg, Danielle,
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(Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 2005).

Robinson, Jo,
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(Vashon, WA: Vashon Island Press, 2004).

Schlosser, Eric,
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(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001).

Sinclair, Upton,
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(1906; repr., London: Penguin, 1985).

Bowermaster, Jon, ed.,
Oceans: The Threats to Our Seas and What You Can Do to Turn the Tide
(New York: PublicAffairs, 2010).

Carson, Rachel,
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(New York: Oxford University Press, 1951).

Danson, Ted,
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(Emmaus, PA: Rodale Books, 2011).

Ellis, Richard,
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(Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2003).

Greenberg, Paul,
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(New York: Penguin Press, 2010).

Jacobsen, Rowan,
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(New York: Bloomsbury, 2009).

Molyneaux, Paul,
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Whitty, Julia,
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(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007).

Brown, Lester,
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Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
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Nabhan, Gary Paul,
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———,
Why Some Like It Hot: Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity
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Systems
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———,
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