In the last few years, the Latin-American seeds have gained increased importance (also due to the increased demand for gluten-free foods). Worldwide demand for Latin-American seeds and grains has risen in a high proportion. In parallel, seeds and grains' research from this region in all relevant fields has been intensified. Latin-American Seeds: Agronomic, Processing and Health Aspects summarizes the recent research on Latin-American crops regarding agronomic and botanical characteristics, composition, structure, use, production, technology, and impact on human health. Latin-American cultivars studied here are included in the groups of cereals, pseudo-cereals, oilseeds, and legumes that are used in a great variety of innovative and traditional foods. The main crops that are covered in this book are Latin-American maize (Zea mays), amaranth (Amaranthus spp), quinoa (Chenopodium spp), kañiwa (Chenopodium pallidicaule), chia (Salvia hispanica), sacha inchi (Plukenetia volubilis) and legumes such as black turtle and common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and tarwi (Lupinus mutabilis). Key Features: Contains updated information about recent research works on Latin-American crops Includes a variety of Latin-American plant species that are used in a great variety of innovative and traditional foods Addresses a wide range of topics related to agronomy, plant physiology, and nutritional and technological properties, processing, fractionation and development of new products for human health

Pomegranate Seedsis the first collection of the oral tradition of Latin American Jews to be presented in English. These thirty-four tales span the 500 years of Jewish presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. The folktales and cultural oral narratives were often based on actual events, recorded not only from the Ashkenazi perspective but from the Sephardic and Oriental as well. Like dispersed pomegranate seeds, all the stories come from a common cluster, yet each is a separate kernel. The stories are short, between five and fifteen pages, and each is carefully annotated. In addition to gathering stories from eleven Latin American countries, the author found material in the United States and Israel. Regardless of their origin, several tales have to do with personal feelings, emotional insights, and interpretation of the protagonists, while others deal with happy or traumatic events that cannot be forgotten and dreams that have not been fulfilled. Not surprisingly, trauma and bigotry are common threads through some of the stories. These are tales, as Nadia Grosser Nagarajan says, "concealed by tropical greenery, encircled by vast jungles and flowing majestic rivers that echo many voices and reflect many views and visions."

By the late 1810s, a global revolution in cotton had remade the U.S.-Mexico border, bringing wealth and waves of Americans to the Gulf Coast while also devastating the lives and villages of Mexicans in Texas. In response, Mexico threw open its northern territories to American farmers in hopes that cotton could bring prosperity to the region. Thousands of Anglo-Americans poured into Texas, but their insistence that slavery accompany them sparked pitched battles across Mexico. An extraordinary alliance of Anglos and Mexicans in Texas came together to defend slavery against abolitionists in the Mexican government, beginning a series of fights that culminated in the Texas Revolution. In the aftermath, Anglo-Americans rebuilt the Texas borderlands into the most unlikely creation: the first fully committed slaveholders' republic in North America. Seeds of Empire tells the remarkable story of how the cotton revolution of the early nineteenth century transformed northeastern Mexico into the western edge of the United States, and how the rise and spectacular collapse of the Republic of Texas as a nation built on cotton and slavery proved to be a blueprint for the Confederacy of the 1860s.

In 1996 Argentina adopted genetically modified (GM) soybeans as a central part of its national development strategy. Today, Argentina is the third largest global grower and exporter of GM crops. Its soybeans—which have been modified to tolerate being sprayed with herbicides—now cover half of the country's arable land and represent a third of its total exports. While soy has brought about modernization and economic growth, it has also created tremendous social and ecological harm: rural displacement, concentration of landownership, food insecurity, deforestation, violence, and the negative health effects of toxic agrochemical exposure. In Seeds of Power Amalia Leguizamón explores why Argentines largely support GM soy despite the widespread damage it creates. She reveals how agribusiness, the state, and their allies in the media and sciences deploy narratives of economic redistribution, scientific expertise, and national identity as a way to elicit compliance among the country’s most vulnerable rural residents. In this way, Leguizamón demonstrates that GM soy operates as a tool of power to obtain consent, to legitimate injustice, and to quell potential dissent in the face of environmental and social violence.

The meeting recognised the need for the sustainable use of plant genetic resources for sustainable agricultural development of the region. Discussions focused on the appropriate mechanisms required to ensure capacity for the maintenance, production and equitable distribution of good quality seeds from a wide range of plant varieties. The meeting agreed to establish the Seed Consultative Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Now in its fifth edition, this leading reader has been updated with new readings and visual sources. This edition includes an added final chapter on current social movements to help students reflect on the ecological realities that inform their world. In addition, the “Legacies of Colonialism” chapter has been restored to give students an understanding of the deep roots of the problems explored. Instead of a separate chapter on women and social change, women’s voices have been woven more seamlessly throughout the book to reflect women’s parity and equity in history. With its innovative combination of primary and secondary sources and thoughtful editorial analysis, this text is designed specifically to stimulate critical thinking in a wide range of courses on Latin American history since independence.

The 2013 James Beard Foundation Cookbook of the Year How to cook everything Latin American. Gran Cocina Latina unifies the vast culinary landscape of the Latin world, from Mexico to Argentina and all the Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean. In one volume it gives home cooks, armchair travelers, and curious chefs the first comprehensive collection of recipes from this region. An inquisitive historian and a successful restaurateur, Maricel E. Presilla has spent more than thirty years visiting each country personally. She’s gathered more than 500 recipes for the full range of dishes, from the foundational adobos and sofritos to empanadas and tamales to ceviches and moles to sancocho and desserts such as flan and tres leches cake. Detailed equipment notes, drink and serving suggestions, and color photographs of finished dishes are also included. This is a one-of-a-kind cookbook to be savored and read as much for the writing and information as for its introduction to heretofore unrevealed recipes.