The best-selling author of The End of Oil takes a close-up look at the modern food system to reveal how we make, market, and consume food and examines the dangerous impact of chemicals and destructive farming techniques, food contamination, and disease, as well as what needs to be done to address the situation. Includes new afterword. Reprint.

An ecological and anthropological study of eating offers insight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of unlimited food varieties reveals the responsibilities of everyday consumers to protect their health and the environment. By the author of The Botany of Desire. Reprint. 150,000 first printing.

A scientific advisor for the film "Jurassic Park" evaluates the potential for artificially growing a real dinosaur without ancient DNA, discussing the relationships between dinosaurs and birds and how it may be possible to stimulate latent tyrannosaurus rex genes in a chicken.

An ecological and anthropological study of eating offers insight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of unlimited food varieties reveals the responsibilities of everyday consumers to protect their health and the environment. By the author of The Botany of Desire. 125,000 first printing.

Argues that global corporations, industrial agriculture, and genetic engineering have robbed the earth of its biodiversity and natural resources, and offers solutions to the crisis by focusing on the principles of ecological agriculture.

A history of the role of food in World War II and its aftermath reveals how more than 20 million people died from starvation, malnutrition and related diseases during the war and traces the interaction between food and strategy on military and home fronts and how period practices continue to influence today's world. 25,000 first printing.

"Paleontology meets pop culture in a talented young author's journey into the lives of dinosaurs Dinosaurs haunt museum halls, stomp across movie screens, and adorn just about any product you can name. Despite groundbreaking discoveries, the dinosaurs of our childhood are entrenched in our minds, and new science struggles to overcome the inaccurate monsters of Jurassic Park. In My Beloved Brontosaurus, the brilliant dinosaur fanatic Brian Switek investigates the tension between dinosaurs as scientific objects and pop-culture icons as he introduces us to the latest theories in paleontology, from how dinosaurs had sex to what colors they were and just how they got so big. To understand why they died--after 150 million years of success--we need to know how they lived. With infectious enthusiasm, Switek explains that these giant beasts left behind a wealth of information in their bones--and it's only by piecing together these clues that we can begin to understand ourselves. After all, our furry little ancestors lived in the shadow of the dinosaurs. Switek visits excavation sites, museums, and high-tech labs to question what we've long held true about these creatures, weaving in stories from his obsession with dinosaurs that started when he was knee-high to a Stegosaurus. Endearing, surprising, and essential to our understanding of our place on Earth, My Beloved Brontosaurus is a book that science buffs and dinosaur fans will cherish for years to come"--

The award-winning author of Everything Is Illuminated exposes common misconceptions about how animals are slaughtered and processed for food, drawing on sources from popular culture to national tradition to reveal how the meat industry misrepresents its practices. Reprint. A best-selling book.

Analyzing the influence of the fast food industry on American society, an award-winning journalist explores the homogenization of American society and the impact of the fast food industry on modern-day health, economy, politics, popular culture, entertainment, food production, and more. Reprint.

From the origin of life, through the age of dinosaurs stalked by the terrifying Tyrannosaurus rex, to the earliest humans, this book tells the story of life on Earth. Dinosaurs may be the stars of the show, but the book is truly comprehensive, with fossil plants, invertebrates, amphibians, fish, birds, reptiles, mammals, and even early bacteria conjuring up an entire past world. To put all of these extinct species in context, the book explores geological time and the way life forms are classified. It also looks at how fossils preserve the story of evolution and how that story can be deciphered. The "Young Earth" chapter explains how forces shaped Earth and steered the course of life. The main part of the book, "Life on Earth," lays out and catalogs the rich story of life, from its beginnings 4 billion years ago, through each geological period, such as the Jurassic and Cretaceous, to the present. The stunning visuals and authoritative text make Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life a fascinating and revealing encyclopedia that will appeal to the whole family.