Book Recommendation: "Seeds of Hope -- Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants"

"In writing about plants, Goodall combines the cozy traditions of English garden writing -- the epistolary ease and familiarity with horticulture -- with the authority of an intrepid scientist who has spent not just days or weeks but years living in the forest among the trees.  She has cultivated that way of being in (and with) nature E.O. Wilson had in mind when he coined the word biophilia.  Though the book is steeped in science, Goodall's feelings for the plants are spiritual--and her concern for their fate in the modern world is forthrightly political.

SEEDS OF HOPE is not just a love letter to the plant world, though it is certainly that.  It's also a call to arms, sounding the alarm about habitat destruction, the violence of industrial agriculture, and the risks of genetic engineering.  In our time, the long, beautiful, and mutually beneficial co-evolutionary journey of plants and animals has arrived at a critical new juncture, Goodall suggests, and this gives SEEDS OF HOPE its sense of urgency.  Jane Goodall wants nothing less than to expand the circle of human affection once again, make it wide enough to take in the sunlight eaters.  For both their sake and our own, let us hope she succeeds."

~from the foreword by Michael Pollan