ENDURING SEEDS: Native American Agriculture and Wild...

ENDURING SEEDS: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation by Gary Nabhan (North Point Press: $11.95). An ethnobotanist who studies the relationships between plants and people, Nabhan reflects on the farming practices of various Native American tribes. The Amerindians carefully preserved the genetic diversity of their crops, avoiding the reliance on a limited number of strains that typifies modern agribusiness--and makes the fields more vulnerable to insects, fungus and disease. As recently as 1908, the Iroquois in Upstate New York planted 60 varieties of beans; today, those varieties have been replaced by a few modern hybrids. Nabhan argues that the Indians practiced a more sensible and sustainable agriculture that required less water, fertilizer and cultivation; the increasingly rare varieties of maize, beans, gourds, etc. still grown by individuals on reservations constitute an endangered storehouse of desirable genetic traits. This thoughtful, well-written book would benefit from illustrations of the plants that the author describes.