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About Jay MannI was raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and earned a B.A. in Biology from Brooklyn College. I obtained a PhD in Biochemistry/Botany from the University of Wisconsin (having barely learned where the ears grow on a corn plant). My jobs included positions at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda), the University of California (Riverside), and Monsanto Corporation (in the days before the company got into genetic modification). After a disagreement about the morality of using potent long-term herbicides in Vietnam, I moved to New Zealand, where I was Plant Biochemist at DSIR (the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) until my retirement a few years ago. My research was mainly concerned with crop plants, which have the duel advantage for a biochemist that (1) they don't have blood and (2) you can usually eat the leftovers. More importantly, results of research on crop plants can improve food quality, storage, or production.
I published almost one hundred papers, mostly scientific but many sold to commercial magazines. It's very satisfying to convince a magazine editor that your work is readable and interesting. As a post-retirement consultant, I've written state-of-the-art summaries about topics such as control of cholesterol levels, enzymes in brewing, and animal feedstuffs The last item provides the basis of my book, since we are just as much at risk as our farm animals from "natural" foods. |
Crop plants that I worked with included
barley, soybeans, onions, pumpkins, and potatoes. but also
nerine ("naked lady"), poroporo (a New Zealand native that produces
a potentially commercial steroid precursor), and lupins (cattle
feed but not human food).