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Chasing the Red Queen

The Evolutionary Race Between Agricultural Pests and Poisons

  • Book
  • © 2014

Overview

Authors:
  1. Andy Dyer

    1. University of South Carolina, Aiken, USA

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  • The first book to apply The Red Queen Hypothesis to agriculture.

  • Explains key concepts in biology and ecology, using the timely issue of food security as a case study.

  • Presents solutions to address the pressing problem of chemical dependence and resistance in agriculture.

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
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  3. Ignoring the Red Queen

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 43-43
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    2. Reductionist Farming: Losing Ecosystem Services

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 45-60

    3. A Weed by Any Other Name: Monocultures and Wild Species

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 61-69

    4. Running Faster: Insecticide and Herbicide Resistance

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 71-80

  4. Trying to Beat the Red Queen

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 81-81
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    2. Exercises in Futility: Cases of Resistance

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 83-93

    3. King Cotton vs. the Red Queen

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 95-105

    4. The Cornucopia of Maize vs. the Red Queen

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 107-115

    5. The Red Queen Trumps Technology: The Failures of Biotech

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 117-132

  5. Playing the Red Queen

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 133-133
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    2. Understanding the Chase to Escape the Cycle

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 135-141

    3. Slowing the Race by Slowing the Attack

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 143-158

    4. Ecosystem Farming: Letting Nature Do the Work

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 159-171

    5. Integrated Systems and Long-Term Stability

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 173-188

    6. Epilogue: Putting All of Our Eggs in a Diversity of Baskets

      • Andy Dyer
      Pages 189-192
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About this book

In the race to feed the world’s seven billion people, we are at a standstill. Over the past century, we have developed increasingly potent and sophisticated pesticides, yet in 2014, the average percentage of U.S. crops lost to agricultural pests was no less than in 1944. To use a metaphor the field of evolutionary biology borrowed from Alice in Wonderland, farmers must run ever faster to stay in the same place—i.e., produce the same yields. With Chasing the Red Queen, Andy Dyer offers the first book to apply the Red Queen Hypothesis to agriculture. Dyer examines one of the world’s most pressing problems as a biological case study. He presents key concepts, from Darwin’s principles of natural selection to genetic variation and adaptive phenotypes. Understanding the fundamentals of ecology and biology is the first step to “playing the Red Queen,” and escaping her unwinnable race. The book’s novel frame will help students, researchers, and policy-makers alike apply that knowledge to the critical task of achieving food security.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of South Carolina, Aiken, USA

    Andy Dyer

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