This book is an evidence-based and, in places, a personal account of the development of scientific plant breeding over the past two hundred years. The work is informed by my background and experiences as a biologist who, while largely trained in the UK, has also worked extensively in the USA, Germany, Australia and, more recently, in the Far East. It is the story of how breeding evolved from an empirical endeavour, practised for millennia by farmers and amateur enthusiasts, to become the globalised corporate agribusiness enterprise of today. I was moved to write this account after spending over two decades working at the interface of academic plant science and its practical application in crop breeding. During this time I have witnessed the steady erosion of plant breeding as a worthwhile and respected aspect of plant science, especially in the public sector. One of my principal motives in writing the book is to raise the profile of plant breeding as a valued and useful profession. I also wish to highlight some of the many imbalances that now bedevil our approach to breeding, some of which have coloured today's often contentious discourse on agriculture and crop improvement in general.

There are many misapprehensions, among scientists and the general public alike, about the way that plant breeders go about their business. In particular, the supposedly revolutionary nature of the ‘new’ (actually now more than two decades old) technologies of genetic engineering has been exaggerated by virtually everybody involved in the debate, whether they be researchers, politicians, agbiotech companies or anti-GM (genetic manipulation) campaigners.