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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 333.7516 EAN: 9780935028966 Edition: 2 Revised ISBN: 093502896X Label: Food First Manufacturer: Food First Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 207 Publication Date: 2005-10 Publisher: Food First Studio: Food First Editorial Review: Product Description: Unweaving the Web of Destruction The continuing devastation of the worlds tropical rain forest affects us allspurring climate change, decimating biodiversity, and wrecking our environments resiliency. Millions of worried people around the world want to do whatever it takes to save the forest that is left. But halting rain forest destruction means understanding what is driving it. In Breakfast of Biodiversity, John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto insightfully describe the ways in which such disparate factors as the international banking system, modern agricultural techniques, rain forest ecology, and the struggles of the poor interact to bring down the forest. They weave an alternative vision in which democracy, sustainable agriculture, and land security for the poor are at the center of the movement to save the tropical environment. This new, fully updated edition of Breakfast of Biodiversity discusses important new developments in our understanding of rain forest biology and assesses the impacts of a decade of "free" trade on the rain forest and on those who live in and around it. Average Rating:
 Rating: - A Key Explanation of Rain Forest Destruction and Appropriate CounteractionThis is a powerful and concise book. Within the book are the equations and succinct explanations of for example, how the demand for bananas causes long term cycles of forest destruction as workers immigrate into banana production areas and eventually are forced out of plantation work with the only option of clearing additional forest for their own survival. The authors also make a clear presentation of the problems of small pristine tropical park reserves in a sea of agriculture showing ... Read More Rating: - Sobering but empowering analysis"Breakfast of Biodiversity" by John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto is a critical analysis of the myriad forces that are driving the destruction of the world's tropical rain forests, with particular emphasis on Central America where the authors have been engaged for many years of hands-on research and field work. The authors write in this, the 2005 second edition about the important insights and lessons that have been learned since the book's first edition published in 1995. Presenting knowledge gained through ... Read More Rating: - Breakfast of biodiversity+ lunch and dinner too!A slim volume that pack a punch.It highlights the global nature of the problem, stressing that rainforests can and indeed do regenerate, but not if the disturbance is too great. Food insecurity and lack of land tenure are cited as important driving forces, and conventional, purist models of conservation, while satisfying the hopes and desires of lobbies in the wealthy developed world, fail to address the human dilammas that are so important. A 'Political Ecological Strategy' if offered as a solution ... Read More Rating:  - thought-provokingWonderfully researched, if sometimes dryly written. If you like this book, then you'll likely find something interesting in the coffee-table book, Costa Rica: The Last Country the Gods Made. The essays, " New Conservation in the Costa Rican Parks System" and "House Made of Rain" touch on many of the things discussed in Vandermeer's text. Rating: - Great explanation of political ecologyAs a professional in the environmental area in Central America, I applaud Vandermeer and Perfecto's explanations of the workings of man in the humid tropical forests of our region. These are not easy issues, yet they manage to leave the reader with a sense of the urgency without oversimplifying or becoming preachy. This book is best for someone who is really interested in the political ramifications of US policy in the tropics, or for someone interested in working in the environment overseas. |
