10,000 years ago the biggest revolution in human history occurred: we began to farm, breeding and domesticating plants that have resulted in the crops we eat today. But the genetic diversity of these domesticated crops, which were developed over millennia, is vanishing and the consequences could be dire. As the production of high yielding, uniform varieties has increased, diversity has declined. We are confronted with the global pressures of feeding a growing population, in a time when staple crops face new threats from disease and changing climates. Crop diversity pioneer Cary Fowler struggles to re-invent a global food system so that it can, in his words, "last forever". Cary aims to safeguard the last place that much of our diversity is left in tact: in the world's vulnerable gene banks.-- from the cover.