The Seed Underground

At no time in our history have Americans been more obsessed with food. Options -- including those for local, sustainable, and organic food -- seem limitless. And yet, our food supply is profoundly at risk. Farmers and gardeners a century ago had five times the possibilities of what to plant than farmers and gardeners do today; we are losing untold numbers of plant varieties to genetically modified industrial monocultures.
In this work of literary nonfiction, author and activist Janisse Ray argues that if we are to secure the future of food, we first must understand where it all begins: the seed.
The Seed Underground is a journey to the frontier of seed-saving. It is driven by stories, those from people who are waging a lush and quiet revolution in thousands of gardens across America to preserve our traditional cornucopia of food by simply growing old varieties and eating them. 
The Seed Underground pays tribute to time-honored and threatened varieties, deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds, and reveals the astonishing characters who grow, study, and save seeds.
This book is a voyage to the country of seed-saving. It is driven by stories, from people waging a lush and quiet revolution in thousands of gardens across America, a battle to preserve our traditional cornucopia of food. 

SKU 7716 | Copyright 2012, softcover, 240 pages.

About the Author:

Janisse Ray is an award-winning and beloved American writer of nonfiction and poetry. Her book Wild Spectacle was chosen by Pam Houston for the Donald L. Jordan Prize in Literary Excellence, which carries a 10K award. Ray won a Pushcart Prize in 2020 for her essay "The Lonely Ruralist," published in GEORGIA REVIEW. 
Ray has been inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Georgia Writer's Association. Ray earned an MFA from the University of Montana. She is the daughter of the late Franklin D. and Lee Ada Branch Ray of Baxley, Georgia. She has a son, Silas Ausable, and a daughter, Skye Larkin, and is married to painter Raven Zapatismo Waters.