Vandana Shiva, Carlo Petrini, Michael Pollen,

Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed
Vandana Shiva (Editor),
South End Press, 2007


Carlo Petrini (Contributor),
and Michael Pollan (Contributor)
Pages: 136
ISBN: 978-0-89608-777-4
Format: paperback original
Release Date: 2007-10-01

from Publisher site...

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 80,000 edible plants used for food only about 150 are being cultivated, and just 8 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 hunger and malnutrition and many more suffer diseases that could be eliminated easily with better food. 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, with practical steps and far reaching concepts, a program to ensure food and agriculture become more socially and ecologically sustainable. It 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. Featuring contributions by Michael Pollan, Prince Charles, Vandana Shiva, the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture, and more, this pocket-sized and galvanizing collection grapples with these enormous costs, daring to imagine a food system—a world—that is sustainable, healthy, and ultimately, just.

A world-renowned environmental leader and thinker, Vandana Shiva is the author of many books, including Earth Democracy, Water Wars, and Staying Alive.