From genomes to ecosystems to human communities

Abstract:

Genomes can be regarded as miniature ecosystems which display many of the same characteristics as that of a prairie or forest ecosystem. Human communities may likewise have characteristics common to nature’s ecosystems. The forces at work which disrupt settings at the landscape level are often the same forces at work which have disrupted small human communities and now threaten to invade the nano-ecosystem of our major crops and livestock. Increasingly, the reward for the disruption of all three integrities is oligarchic power.

Presented at the “Agriculture as a Mimic of Natural Ecosystems” workshop held at Munthoola, Williams, Western Australia, September 2-6, 1997.

Jackson, W. (1999). From Genomes to Ecosystems to Human Communities. In R. LeFroy (Ed.), E.C. Lefroy, R.J. Hobbs, M.H. O’Connor, J.S. Pate, Agriculture as a Mimic of Natural Ecosystems. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 39-55.

Abstract reprinted with permission from Kluwer Academic Publishers.