1.4.08 | Washington Post Book World “The book pays homage to a martyr who understood that crop varieties must be preserved for the future food security of the human race. As Nabhan points out, the risk today is no less than in Vavilov's time, and it may be greater.”
12.17.08 | Mother Earth News Learn what a three-year journey taught Gary Nabhan about the world of agriculture and how it's adjusting to new changes.
December 2008 | Yahoo Green "In this beautifully told nonfiction narrative, Nabhan shows how climate change, economics, genetic engineering, and tiny seeds all over the world will affect our future." 12.20.08 | Science News "Equal parts travelog, biography and botanical history, Nabhan breathes life into the exploits of Russia’s botanical adventurer." —
12.13.08 | NPR's "Splendid Table "Any book with ethnobotanist Nabhan’s name on it is going to be worth a read but this one’s a grabber. A thriller, a tragedy and self-help – all-in-one.” — Lynne Rossetto
12.10.08 |Nature "Where Our Food Comes From is a marked critique of the worldwide simplification of agricultural systems. It pins its hopes on local, traditional agriculture and is sceptical of top-down approaches to increasing food production, such as calls for another 'green revolution'." 11.22.08 | NPR's "Splendid Table "The story of a profound visionary who set out to end famine, and the price he paid."
11.20.08| Treehugger | "9 Must Read Books on Eating Well"
11.6.08 | Ecosalon "Fascinating look at the origins of our food and shows how climate change, free trade policies, genetic engineering, and loss of traditional knowledge are threatening our food supply."
10.16.08 | Jefferson Exchange Radio »»» Listen here
The future of our food depends on tiny seeds in orchards and fields the world over. In 1943, one of the first to recognize this fact, the great botanist Nikolay Vavilov, lay dying of starvation in a Soviet prison. But in the years before Stalin jailed him as a scapegoat for the country’s famines, Vavilov had traveled over five continents, collecting hundreds of thousands of seeds in an effort to outline the ancient centers of agricultural diversity and guard against widespread hunger. Now, another remarkable scientist—and vivid storyteller—has retraced his footsteps.
In Where Our Food Comes From, Gary Paul Nabhan weaves together Vavilov’s extraordinary story with his own expeditions to Earth’s richest agricultural landscapes and the cultures that tend them. Retracing Vavilov’s path from Mexico and the Colombian Amazon to the glaciers of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, he draws a vibrant portrait of changes that have occurred since Vavilov’s time and why they matter.
Vavilov's is a powerfully important story in today's world of rising food prices, shortages, and even riots and violence. Safeguarding seed diversity as a component of locally sustainable agriculture is critical for ensuring tomorrow's food supply and averting famine. But as Nabhan shows us, it is threatened by climate change, global food markets, genetic engineering, the loss of traditional knowledge, and barriers to food democracy.
Through discussions with local farmers, visits to outdoor markets, and comparing his observations in eleven countries to Vavilov's journals and photos, Nabhan reveals just how much we've already lost and how resilient farmers and scientists are working to save the remaining living riches of our world.
It is a cruel irony that Vavilov, a man who spent his life working to foster nutrition and traveling the globe, ultimately died from starvation, caged in a cell. In telling Vavilov’s story, Where Our Food Comes From brings to life the intricate relationships among culture, politics, the land, and the future of the world's food.
AUTHOR BIO
Gary Paul Nabhan is a world-renowned ethnobiologist, conservationist, and essayist. The author of Why Some Like It Hot, Coming Home to Eat, and many other books and articles, he has been honored with a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and The John Burroughs Medal for nature writing. Founder and facilitator of the Renewing America’s Food Traditions collaborative, he is currently a Research Social Scientist at the Southwest Center at the University of Arizona.
See www.garynabhan.com to track his lecture and photo exhibit schedules.
“. . .moving, often harrowing, always eloquent account shows that by putting humanity back into ecology and vice-versa, much of this world could and would fall back into place.” — Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us and Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World
“. . fascinating reading. . . Where Our Food Comes From[is] a must-read.” — Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets
“Gary Nabhan has given us a narrative. . . sure to keep readers up past bedtime.” — Wes Jackson, president, The Land Institute
“A riveting account. . .told by a master scientist and storyteller of today. Shining through the travels of both is a critical insight: that safeguarding our food supply depends ultimately on our ability to preserve the vitality of diverse cultures the world over.” — Wade Davis, author of One River and Light at the Edge of the World
Podcast 
Gary Paul Nabhan is a world-renowned ethnobiologist, conservationist, and essayist. The author of 