Product Description

"Shiva is a burst of creative energy, an intellectual power."-The Progressive

Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed is a short, pocket-sized collection that goes to the heart of our existence-what we eat and how we grow it. It covers the questions:

• How are seeds cultivated and saved?
• How far must food travel before reaching our plate?
• Who gets paid for the food we eat?
• Why does our food taste like this?

We live in a world where of the eighty thousand edible plants used for food, only about 150 are being cultivated, and just eight are traded globally. A world where we produce food for 12 billion people when there are only 6.3 billion people living, and still, 800 million suffer from malnutrition and 1.7 billion suffer from obesity. A world where food is modified to travel long distances rather than to be nutritious and flavorful.

Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed lays out, in practical steps and far-reaching concepts, a program to ensure food and agriculture become more socially and ecologically sustainable. The book harvests the work and ideas produced by thousands of communities around the world. Emerging from the historic gatherings at Terra Madre, farmers, traders, and activists diagnose and offer prescriptions to reverse perhaps the worst food crisis faced in human history.

There is a growing realization that food politics is vital to the health of our bodies, economies, and environment-in other words, a matter of life or death. Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, writes, "Reinstating food as a central, primary element in our lives seems an obvious thing to do, since without food, no living things would exist." Thousands of communities around the world are working to do just this.

A world-renowned environmental leader and thinker, Vandana Shiva is the author of many books, including Earth Democracy, Water Wars, and Staying Alive. Manifestos includes essays by Prince Charles and Carlo Petrini.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #274597 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780896087774
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
A world-renowned environmental leader and recipient of the 1993 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award), Shiva has authored several bestselling books, most recently Earth Democracy. Activist and scientist, Shiva leads, with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin, the International Forum on Globalization. Before becoming an activist, Shiva was one of India's leading physicists.

Customer Reviews

Excellent call(s) to action
Okay. Michael Pollan's note (see his "review" of this book) has worked. He's clearly no longer listed as the "author" of this wonderful little book. I'm glad that this was straightened out. The problem is that his 1-star rating has pulled down the overall rating for Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed. This is a real shame, because the book is a gem.

Edited by Vandana Shiva, the tireless scientist and food activist/ecologist, the book collects papers read at Terre Madre conferences in Italy. Participants in the conference were proponents of the slow food movement, advocates of organic farming, local eating, and the deindustrialization of the food industry, and people who object to the patenting and industrial control of seeds (Shiva has led the way in this battle).

Sandwiched in between the lectures (including the one by Michael Pollan) are the two manifestos, one on food and one on seeds, which give the book its title. They call for concerned and united action on behalf of the good earth, farmers, human consumers, and members of the biosphere affected by industrial agriculture's heavy reliance on chemicals and, now, GMOs.

A very timely and worthwhile introduction to alternatives to agribusiness, fast food culture, and agriculture-based environmental and economic devastation. The essays are all solid and interesting (I was especially impressed by Prince Charles', largely, I suppose, because I unfairly didn't expect much from it). People who want a quick but reliable primer on food will benefit from reading them.

And so Mr. Pollan: delete your review so that the ratings for this fine book can soar,won't you?

A deftly composed treatise
No matter how much technology advances, no matter what new advances in medical science society make, somethings will never change - that humanity will have to do one thing the same way it did when it was closer to beast then man - eat. "Manifestos On The Future of Food & Seed" is an examination of modern agriculture, and an encouragement to increase the world's cultivating range and trade amongst each other, stating the fact of 80,000 plants in the world are edible for food, 150 of them are grown intentionally, and only eight are traded internationally. "Manifestos On The Future of Food & Seed" is highly recommended as a deftly composed treatise in the form of essays from five intellectuals on the subject and deserves a place on any community library agriculture shelf.

Dear disclaiming contributor Michael Pollan
Dear disclaiming "author" Michael Pollan, regarding your Amazon review of 2 years ago for this book "Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed": You may not be aware your review has generated other responses to this book. Other reviewers mention your review in their reviews and there are several reader comments from readers under your own review. Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental leader and recipient of the 1993 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize. It's unfair this editor's credibility is damaged because of an Amazon catalog mistake. In addition, Does your damaging review disclaiming "authorship" help sales for your own books while at the same time discrediting the editor and contributors to this book?

I submitted a catalog update for this book to correct two incorrectly listed "authors" as more appropriately "contributors" because Vandana Shiva is the only editor of this book proven on the cover which has your name included as contributor. Your name wasn't submitted as a current contributor because of your prior review disclaiming authorship.

This information might be helpful to you. It shouldn't be necessary to submit a review to make a catalog correction because any buyer can submit catalog corrections to remove or update author functions. Amazon catalog entries are often updated by customers who may have noticed or wanted to credit you for your contribution. Amazon has many choices available to their catalog updates for author functions and "contributor" is an available suggestion for author choice. Most likely this mistake was NOT authors fault since they have little to do with product listing pages. Your name was removed from this product page probably quite some time ago. Your review as a "contributor" is unfair under the circumstances and so thought others who commented.

Buyers can submit product update information to correct author names by signing into their Amazon customer accounts. The link for update product info for a catalog update correction is located right below Product Details information. Catalog update information request changes to suggested author functions can include "contributor" for example instead of "author" among various other choices available. Why Amazon advised to submit a review with feedback rating in order to disclaim authorship seems totally unnecessary advice?

Should anyone change review ratings, it's possible to delete reviews and resubmit reviews with changed ratings. Yet once a review is edited or deleted, reader response comments under reviews are also deleted.

Message from Amazon: "Thank you for using the Catalog Update Form.Please know updates are prioritized for processing according to which items are most popular with customers. Updates are individually reviewed and we recommend providing the complete URL necessary to verify your information. You will receive notification when your update has been processed with information on our processing decision."

Preview your updates
Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed
ASIN: 0896087778
Authors:
Current author #1:
Carlo Petrini
Suggested author function:
Contributor

Current author #2:
Jamey Lionette
Suggested author function:
Contributor

Current author #3:
Vandana Shiva
Suggested author function:
Editor