{"product_id":"9780807085912","title":"Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds","description":"Life on earth is facing unprecedented challenges from global warming,  war, and mass extinctions. The plight of seeds is a less visible but no  less fundamental threat to our survival. Seeds are at the heart of the  planet's life-support systems. Their power to regenerate and adapt are  essential to maintaining our food supply and our ability to cope with a  changing climate.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eUncertain Peril\u003c\/i\u003e, environmental journalist Claire Hope Cummings  exposes the stories behind the rise of industrial agriculture and plant  biotechnology, the fall of public interest science, and the folly of  patenting seeds. She examines how farming communities are coping with  declining water, soil, and fossil fuels, as well as with new commercial  technologies. Will genetically engineered and \"terminator\" seeds lead to  certain promise, as some have hoped, or are we embarking on a path of  uncertain peril? Will the \"doomsday vault\" under construction in the  Arctic, designed to store millions of seeds, save the genetic diversity  of the world's agriculture?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e To answer these questions and others, Cummings takes readers from the  Fertile Crescent in Iraq to the island of Kaua'i in Hawai'i; from  Oaxaca, Mexico, to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. She examines the plight  of farmers who have planted transgenic seeds and scientists who have  been persecuted for revealing the dangers of modified genes.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e At each turn, Cummings looks deeply into the relationship between people  and plants. She examines the possibilities for both scarcity and  abundance and tells the stories of local communities that are producing  food and fuel sustainably and providing for the future. The choices we  make about how we feed ourselves now will determine whether or not seeds  will continue as a generous source of sustenance and remain the common  heritage of all humanity. It comes down to this: whoever controls the  future of seeds controls the future of life on earth.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eUncertain Peril\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful reminder that what's at stake right now is nothing less than the nature of the future.","brand":"Beacon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47129088295152,"sku":"9780807085912","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780807085912_p0.jpg?v=1763738874","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780807085912","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}