It is, as well, a science. Not often do modern writers recall this fundamental truth. Raoul and Pam reflect it in their everyday lives. Raoul pursues the craft of organic farming, based on his experiences and those of farmers over the centuries, yet couples it with the modern science of ecology. For Pam, molecular and cellular science is paramount, yet she recognizes that all good plant breeders are also craftspeople in their day-to-day work.

The second marriage is more contentious: it tries to wed two entrenched camps where extreme views predominate. The marriage is long overdue. Several thousand years ago we humans had to give up hunting and gathering wild food sources. We began to domesticate and cultivate cereals and breed livestock. This process inescapably requires manipulation, which has grown increasingly complex and scientific.

Organic farming strives to maintain the centrality of natural processes—the value of organic matter as a source of nutrients and soil structure, and the role that natural enemies play in controlling pests, diseases, and weeds. Yet, as Raoul shows in this book, many of these processes have limitations in even a moderately intensive agricultural system. Pests, for example, may be very difficult to control. I know from my own work in Africa of the intractability of controlling the dreadful weed Striga or the pests and diseases of such crops as cowpeas and bananas using organic or conventional technologies.

What Pam and Raoul do is show that there is a role for genetic engineering in solving these particularly difficult-to-solve problems. Moreover, they show how technology can be applied in a way that strengthens organic farming performance and does not undermine its principles.
These are inspirational marriages.

Sir Gordon Conway, KCMG, FRS
Professor of International Development, Center for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
Past President of the Rockefeller Foundation