Economic botany: Past and future

Economic botany, like botany, had its origin with the herbalists. Its development was encouraged by various European rulers during the Age of Exploration and Discovery in the 16th century. Recent developments in the United States include A. F. Hill’s textbook, Economic Botany, in 1937 the founding of the journal Economic Botany by E. H. Fulling in 1947 and the formation of the Society for Economic Botany in 1959 Some of the breakthroughs in the development of agriculture, beginning with its origin some 10,000 yr ago, are given. It is concluded that we now need another significant breakthrough to feed the world’s population adequately in the year 2000 Some look to genetic engineering to provide such a breakthrough.