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The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-eye View of the World, by Michael Pollan
PDF Download The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-eye View of the World, by Michael Pollan
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A farmer cultivates genetically modified potatoes so that a customer at McDonald's half a world away can enjoy a long, golden french fry. A gardener plants tulip bulbs in the autumn and in the spring has a riotous patch of colour to admire. Two simple examples of how humans act on nature to get what we want. Or are they? What if those potatoes and tulips have evolved to gratify certain human desires so that humans will help them multiply? What if, in other words, these plants are using us just as we use them? In blending history, memoir and superb science writing, Pollan tells the story of four domesticated species - the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato. All four plants are integral to our everyday lives and Pollan demonstrates how each has thrived by satisfying one of humankind's most basic desires. Weaving fascinating anecdote and accessible science, Pollan takes the reader on an absorbing journey through the landscape of botany and desire. It is a journey that will change the way we think about our place in nature
- Sales Rank: #5394118 in Books
- Published on: 2002-03-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.80" h x .87" w x 5.08" l, .57 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 320 pages
Amazon.com Review
Working in his garden one day, Michael Pollan hit pay dirt in the form of an idea: do plants, he wondered, use humans as much as we use them? While the question is not entirely original, the way Pollan examines this complex coevolution by looking at the natural world from the perspective of plants is unique. The result is a fascinating and engaging look at the true nature of domestication.
In making his point, Pollan focuses on the relationship between humans and four specific plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. He uses the history of John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) to illustrate how both the apple's sweetness and its role in the production of alcoholic cider made it appealing to settlers moving west, thus greatly expanding the plant's range. He also explains how human manipulation of the plant has weakened it, so that "modern apples require more pesticide than any other food crop." The tulipomania of 17th-century Holland is a backdrop for his examination of the role the tulip's beauty played in wildly influencing human behavior to both the benefit and detriment of the plant (the markings that made the tulip so attractive to the Dutch were actually caused by a virus). His excellent discussion of the potato combines a history of the plant with a prime example of how biotechnology is changing our relationship to nature. As part of his research, Pollan visited the Monsanto company headquarters and planted some of their NewLeaf brand potatoes in his garden--seeds that had been genetically engineered to produce their own insecticide. Though they worked as advertised, he made some startling discoveries, primarily that the NewLeaf plants themselves are registered as a pesticide by the EPA and that federal law prohibits anyone from reaping more than one crop per seed packet. And in a interesting aside, he explains how a global desire for consistently perfect French fries contributes to both damaging monoculture and the genetic engineering necessary to support it.
Pollan has read widely on the subject and elegantly combines literary, historical, philosophical, and scientific references with engaging anecdotes, giving readers much to ponder while weeding their gardens. --Shawn Carkonen
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. On the sixth anniversary of its original publication, Pollan's scientific twist on the human/plant symbiosis makes its audio debut. Pollan preaches a unique sort of romantic environmentalism where humans and plants satisfy each other's desires for survival, enjoyment, satisfaction and escape. He uses the apple, tulip, Cannabis and potato to develop his ideas, offering the histories of each and how they developed reciprocal relationships with the humans with whom each interacted. Scott Brick exudes excitement and breathes life into the recording—the timbre of his voice offering just the right touch of humor and depth. Listeners will feel like Brick truly loves the book and loves reading it aloud. It's a great combination for listeners: interesting subject, great writing and wonderful reading. Definitely not to be missed. (Reviews, Apr. 9, 2001)
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Library Journal
Plants are important to us for many reasons. Pollan, an editor and contributor to Harper's and the New York Times Magazine and author of Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, muses on our complex relationships with them, using the examples of the apple, the tulip, the marijuana plant, and the potato. He weaves disparate threads from personal, scientific, literary, historical, and philosophical sources into an intriguing and somehow coherent narrative. Thus, he portrays Johnny Appleseed as an important force in adapting apple trees to a foreign climate but also a Dionysian figure purveying alcohol to settlers; tulips as ideals of beauty that brought about disaster to a Turkish sultan and Dutch investors; marijuana as a much desired drug related to a natural brain chemical that helps us forget as well as a bonanza for scientific cultivators; and the potato, a crop once vilified as un-Christian, as the cause of the Irish famine and finally an example of the dangers of modern chemical-intense, genetically modified agriculture. These essays will appeal to those with a wide range of interests. Recommended for all types of libraries. [For more on the tulip, see Anna Pavord's The Tulip (LJ 3/1/99) and Mike Dash's Tuplipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused (LJ 3/1/00). Ed.] Marit S. Taylor, Auraria Lib., Denve.
- Marit S. Taylor, Auraria Lib., Denver
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
This is not just a botany book. It is a food book and book about money, about drugs and it's a mystical experience all in one!
By Pamela S. Wagner
This is my all-time favorite plant book, even though it concerns only four plants: apples, tulips, potatoes and of all things, marijuana.Nevertheless, the details that author Pollan shares with the reader about these four plants and their histories is both fascinating and indispensable knowledge for anyone even slightly interested in botany. And i must say that if you so much as eat apples or potatoes ( read: french fries?) or enjoy spring tulips or happened to ever have savored MaryJanes aroma, whether you "inhaled" or not, you will find something in this book that will rivet your attention. Just for an example, take Johnny Appleseed spreading those millions of apple trees. Who knew that those apples that came from those trees would never be fit for eating, because as Pollan tells us, apples don't come true from seed. Thus his conclusion is that Johnny Appleseed spread apples for one purpose only: the making of hard apple cider, which was the drink of choice in early America!
This is only one amazing tidbit from The Botany of Desire but it was such a great read and so jam-packed with information that i literally read it five times over the years since its publication. I highly recommend it to everyone.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
It will leave you wanting more.
By fatal_degree
A story of four plants and four human motivations, Pollan draws them together with wit. I consumed this book in a short time, taking to work to read in my spare moments. I don't often get wrapped up so deeply in books, but this one grabbed me. There are source citations for a great many of his assertions, which was also fantastic. If you are interested in evolution, plants, human nature, marijuana, flowers, industrial food, organic gardening; there will be something to carry you through this story and speak to your interest. The writing is engaging and flows with ease from one subject to the next. It refers back to previous chapters and thoughts expressed, without wandering aimlessly in thought.
A great little read that will provoke thought and discussion. It will leave you wanting more.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Finished the book, then bought it
By Thora
The Botany of Desire, A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan (270 pages)
I borrowed this book and, after reading it, decided I needed to buy a copy, as it's a book I want to keep and have available to loan out. Environmental journalist Michael Pollan explores the relationship between humans and plants – coevolution. He presents intriguing chapters on desires:
• Sweetness -- the apple (Johnny Appleseed and the evolution of the apple to today’s highly domesticated fruit);
• Beauty -- the tulip (Bred to the Turks’ idea of beauty, the tulip took over and transformed Holland);
• Intoxication -- Marijuana (altered to satisfy human desires for intoxication, the marijuana plant has been bred to avoid detection. Small female clones are grown inside, under controlled conditions);
• Control --the potato (Why the Potato Famine caused devastation in Ireland and dangers of genetic engineered Monsato’s NewLeafs. The NewLeafs are resistant to blight. The danger is that potato diseases resistant to today’s chemicals will develop).
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