Overview

"The gripping story of how Bent Skovmand and others preserved the world's wheat harvest. In 1999, a terrifying new form of stem rust--spotted in Uganda and dubbed ""UG99""--quickly turned robust golden fields into dark, tangled ruins. For decades plant scientists had bred wheat varieties with rust-resistant genes, but these genes did not work against UG99. Unchecked, UG99 could spread all over the world, including the United States. Breeders everywhere began searching wheat germplasm collections for sources of resistance. The largest collection was at the Center for Improvement of Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT ) in Mexico, developed by the brilliant Danish scientist Bent Skovmand. For three decades, Skovmand amassed, multiplied, and documented thousands of wheat varieties. He served as an advisor on wheat genetic resources to dozens of countries, and hunted for seeds that would contain the genes to protect the harvest from plagues like UG99 and the stresses created by global warming. I n an era when corporations and governments often jealously guarded breeding information, Skovmand fought to keep his seed bank a center for free, open scientific exchange. By telling the story of Skovmand's work and that of his colleagues, The Viking in the Wheat Field sheds a welcome light on an agricultural sector--""plant genetic resources""--on which we are all crucially dependent."

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In vivid language, Dworkin presents Skovmand's legacy as ample reason for a new generation of genetic researchers to take the cause. -- Kirkus Reviews <p> Susan Dworkin has found a delightful way to tell the alarming story of the fragility of the global wheat crop. She leads us expertly and enthusiastically into Bent Skovmand's strange, infrequently penetrated domain of plant breeding and international seed banks, a world in which unsung scientists search and save exotic plant germplasm to protect the staffs of life against pests, plagues and corporate raiders. As the Viking himself warns in Dworkin's book, 'If the seeds disappear, so could your food. So could you.' -- Peter Pringle, author of Food Inc., Mendel to Monsanto--The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest, and The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov <p> Thanks to Bent Skovmand and scientists of his ilk, most of us take it for granted that there will be food on table when needed. The Viking in the Wheat Field is about the im

&#8220;In vivid language, Dworkin presents Skovmand&#8217;s legacy as ample reason for a new generation of genetic researchers to take the cause.&#8221; &#8212; Kirkus Reviews <p>&#8220;Susan Dworkin has found a delightful way to tell the alarming story of the fragility of the global wheat crop. She leads us expertly and enthusiastically into Bent Skovmand's strange, infrequently penetrated domain of plant breeding and international seed banks, a world in which unsung scientists search and save exotic plant germplasm to protect the staffs of life against pests, plagues and corporate raiders. As the Viking himself warns in Dworkin's book, &#8216;If the seeds disappear, so could your food. So could you.&#8217;&#8221;&#8212; Peter Pringle, author of Food Inc. , Mendel to Monsanto--The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest , and The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov <p>&#8220;Thanks to Bent Skovmand and scientists of his ilk, most of us take it for granted that there will be food on table

Author Information

Susan Dworkin worked briefly for the United States Department of Agriculture during the Kennedy Administration before becoming a journalist, covering foreign aid projects in Iran and Israel. She went on to a career writing social history through the biographies of Bess Myerson, Edith Hahn Beer, and others, but she never lost her fascination for agriculture and its love-hate relationship with technology. For ten years she was a contributing editor to Ms. Magazine and has been a frequent contributor to Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, and other national publications.

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