Background
Young, Allen Marcus was born on February 23, 1942 in Ossining, New York, United States. Son of George Marcus and Margaret Mary (Murphy) Young.
( Young provides an overview of the fascinating natural a...)
Young provides an overview of the fascinating natural and human history of one of the world’s most intriguing commodities: chocolate. Cultivated for over 1,000 years in Latin America and the starting point for millions of tons of chocolate annually consumed worldwide, cacao beans have been used for beverages, as currency, and for regional trade. After the Spanish brought the delectable secret of the cacao tree back to Europe in the late 16th century, its seeds created and fed an insatiable worldwide appetite for chocolate. The Chocolate Tree chronicles the natural and cultural history of Theobroma cacao and explores its ecological niche. Tracing cacao’s journey out of the rain forest, into pre-Columbian gardens, and then onto plantations adjacent to rain forests, Young describes the production of this essential crop, the environmental price of Europeanized cultivation, and ways that current reclamation efforts for New World rain forests can improve the natural ecology of the cacao tree. Amid encounters with sloths, toucans, butterflies, giant tarantula hawk wasps, and other creatures found in cacao groves, Young identifies a tiny fly that provides a vital link between the chocolate tree and its original rain forest habitat. This discovery leads him to conclude that cacao trees in cultivation today may have lost their original insect pollinators due to the plant’s long history of agricultural manipulation. In addition to basic natural history of the cacao tree and the relationship between cacao production systems and the preservation of the rain forest, Young also presents a history of the use of cacao, from the archaeological evidence of Mesoamerica to contemporary evidence of the relationship between chocolate consumption and mental and physical health. A rich concoction of cultural and natural history, archaeological evidence, botanical research, environmental activism, and lush descriptions of a contemporary adventurer’s encounters with tropical wonders, The Chocolate Tree offers an appreciation of the plant and the environment that provide us with this Mayan “food of the gods.”
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813030447/?tag=2022091-20
(In this book I have tried to bring together the major dev...)
In this book I have tried to bring together the major developments in the study of insect populations in tropical environments. In some ways, this task has been a difficult one because conceptually it is virtually impossible to limit a discussion of insect ecology to the tropics, since the same concepts, theories, and hypoth eses concerning the mechanisms by which habitats support insect populations often apply both to temperate and to tropical regions. Thus one might argue effectively that a book such as Peter Price's Insect Ecology represents a more comprehensive treatment of insect ecology, including the tropical aspects. Yet because there has been a tremendous amount of new study on insects in the tropics in recent years, and because there has also been a strong historical interest in tropical insects, judging from early museum expeditions and medically and agriculturally oriented studies of insects in the New and Old World tropics, I believe there is a place for a book dealing almost exclusively with tropical insects. But logically so, such a book by necessity incorporates data and informa tion from Temperate Zone studies, if for no other reason than because insights into the properties of tropical environments often emerge from compariso'ns of species, communities, or faunas between temperate and tropical regions. An understanding of insect populations in the tropics cannot be divorced from a consideration of Temperate Zone populations.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0306408430/?tag=2022091-20
educator consultant museum curator naturalist writer
Young, Allen Marcus was born on February 23, 1942 in Ossining, New York, United States. Son of George Marcus and Margaret Mary (Murphy) Young.
Bachelor, State University of New York, New Paltz, 1964; Doctor of Philosophy, University of Chicago, 1968.
Postdoctoral fellow, Organisation for Tropical Studies, San Jose, Costa Rica, 1968-1970;
assistant professor, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, 1970-1975;
curator invertabrate zoology, Milwaukee Public Museum, 1975-1989;
curator zoology, Milwaukee Public Museum, since 1989;
vice president for collections & research, Milwaukee Public Museum, since 1993;
vice president for collections, research public programs, Milwaukee Public Museum, since 1994. Adjunct Professor University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, since 1976. Consultant Chocolate Manufacturers, Hersey, Pennsylvania,1980-.
Freelance writer magazines and newspapers, since 1978.
( Young provides an overview of the fascinating natural a...)
(In this book I have tried to bring together the major dev...)
( “Young . . . brings the trained eye of an entomologist ...)
(“Young . . . brings the trained eye of an entomologist an...)
Member American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association for Tropical Biology, Entomological Society Washington, New York Entomological Society.
Married Mary Joan Treis, February 17, 1978 (divorced October 1990).