Nature of Crops

John Warren has had a career spread across three continents and many different agricultural systems. He has worked with farmers and growers from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland to the smallholder farmers and oil palm plantations of Papua New Guinea. Within education he was involved in teaching students from diploma level through to post-graduates, covering topics including: sustainable agriculture, countryside management, conservation, and ecological design. In 2016, he left Aberystwyth University where he had been Professor of Agri-Botany to become Vice Chancellor of the Papua New Guinea, University of Natural Resources and Environment. Since retiring, he runs a small holding in west Wales, trying to put into practice much of what he covered in lectures.

• 1: Introduction: The Nature of Natural - What does domestication involve? 2: Wild Things - Recently domesticated crops and crops that have returned to the wild 3: Learning to Live with Exotic Sexual Practices - How plant breeding systems limit domestication 4: Storing up Trouble - Plants with storage organs 5: The Weird and Wonderful - Herbs, spices and crops with exotic phytochemicals 6: Accidents of History - The role of chance events in domestication 7: Classic Combinations and Reoccurring Themes - Plant families that have been repeatedly domesticated 8: Ownership and Theft - How the economic value of crops has influenced their domestication 9: Fifty Shades of Green - Nutrient rich crops and the next generation