Sustainable Agriculture and New Biotechnologies (Advances in Agroecology)

"Taking a broad and innovative informational approach, Sustainable Agriculture and New Biotechnologies is the first book to apply omic technologies to address issues related to understanding and improving agricultural sustainability in the food production process. The transformation from industrial to sustainable agriculture is discussed within the frameworks of new biotechnologies and global environmental changes. While considering this transformation, the book covers: The use of new biotechnologies to help in the creation of more sustainable agricultural practices, including methods in molecular biology, genetic engineering, and the new emerging technologies, such as metabolomics, metagenomics, nutrigenomics, and ionomics The path to reach the goal of the global sustainable agricultural and food production systems in a world of limited natural resources and growing environmental degradation Principles that regulate the new agricultural and food production systems including breeding programs for more sustainable crops, soil management, and environment preservation It is clear that biotechnological approaches will become increasingly important in the future and that a shift from industrial to a sustainable agriculture will be necessary. While many books tend to make "a quick and easy link" between these two different worlds, Sustainable Agriculture and New Biotechnologies describes exactly how omics can contribute to greater food productivity and security, and agricultural sustainability in the future"--Provided by publisher This addition to the Advances in Agroecology series offers a collection on the use of omics technologies in understanding and improving agricultural sustainability in food production. Omics, a relatively new term, encompasses a variety of biotechnologies such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. The chapters in the book describe many omics, some of which are more applicable than others to sustainable agriculture. A sampling of topics includes: the use of omics databases for plants, characterization and efficient use of plant genetic resources, microbial functionality and diversity in agroecosystems, and metabolomics: a current view on fruit quality in relation to human health. Editor Benkeblia (life sciences, U. of the West Indies, Jamaica) and 74 co-authors contributed to the book. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)