About the Author

Norman C. Ellstrand is distinguished professor of genetics at the University of California, Riverside, where he holds the Jane S. Johnson Endowed Chair in Food and Agriculture. He is the author of Dangerous Liaisons?: When Cultivated Plants Mate with Their Wild Relatives.

Reviews

"In a funny way, Ellstrand's book could be called the 'secret sex life of crop plants, ' because relatively few people know the ins and outs of avocadoes, bananas, beets, corn, or squash. Sex on the Kitchen Table will help readers understand how crop plants reproduce and why that is so significant when it comes to solving problems in agriculture. I haven't read anything quite like this before. Edifying and entertaining."--Raoul W. Adamchak, Market Gardens/CSA Coordinator, Student Farm, University of California, Davis "coauthor of "Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food" " "If the title of this book calls to mind the film encounter between Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange in The Postman Always Rings Twice, you should know that the scene had many botanical predecessors. Daily you may grace your kitchen table with the products of plant sex: avocados, tomatoes, and squash betray this origin in the seeds they contain, but a cabbage has a sex life too. Ellstrand shines a spotlight on plant sex, revealing how weird it can be, how promiscuous it often is, and just how mobile plant genes are. All our food plants have wild ancestors, and where wild and crop relatives grow near each other, sex happens. It takes engineering to move genes between unrelated species but, Ellstrand argues, it's sex all the same. His message is wise-up and enjoy plant sex. I love it!"--Jonathan Silvertown, University of Edinburgh "author of "Dinner with Darwin: Food, Drink, and Evolution" "