Agriculture

BOOKS ET AL.
AGRICULTURE

Infusing Evolutionary Perspectives
Allison A. Snow

aking a cue from Darwinian medicine enhancing the performance of the entire crop (1), Darwinian Agriculture offersan population. engaging and bold explanation of why Ever skeptical of biotech’s silver bullets, agricultural research must take better advan- Denison contends that using genetic engineertage ofinsights from evolutionary biology. ing to enhance tradeoff-free photosynthetic A provocative and companefficiency or water-use effiionable author, agronomist R. ciency may be extremely chalDarwinianAgriculture Ford Denison (University of lenging because millions of How Understanding Minnesota) spent much of his years of natural selection may Evolution Can Improve career at the University of Calhavealready experimented Agriculture ifornia, Davis. His writing varwith mutations that enhance by R. Ford Denison ies from scientifically rigorplant fitness through these ous to casually anecdotal andtraits. Likewise, agroecoloPrinceton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2012. from caustic to empathetic, gists who attempt to select for 268 pp. $39.50, £27.95. as he describes the mistakes high grainyields from perenISBN 9780691139500. and successes of crop breednial grasses are unlikely to ers, molecular biologists, and achieve what annual plants agroecologists who have taken on agricul- can offerbecause of underlying tradeoffs ture’s great challenges. He has a deep inter- between perenniality and seed proest in plant physiology, organic farming, and duction. Denison argues that bothevolutionary biology, all of which contribute genetic engineering and mimicry of to the originality of his views on agriculture. natural ecosystems have the potenDenison argues that current efforts to tial toimprove agriculture, but only improve agriculture are “risking failure” if evolutionary tradeoffs are underif core principles of Darwinian thinking stood and taken into account. are ignored. Noting...