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The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World Review

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World Feature

ISBN13: 9780375760396
Condition: New
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The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World Overview

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a
similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World Specifications

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

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Customer Reviews

This book personifies plants and makes all kinds of false statements - Mark D. Jones - Huntsville, AL United States
Plants don't make an evolutionary decision to throw their lot in with humans. Evolution is about the random mutations that occur and the survival of the fittest. This tries to pass itself off as science but what it really does is mislead people into believing that the result was planned.

True that it does encourage you to see things from a different angle, but it doesn't make any valid points in the direction of how plants "plan" their future....

nice story but some facts are fiction! - Brad Polkinghorn -
I'm reluctantly writing this review since, although I'm about to criticize the book/video in question for failing on accuracy/fact, I did enjoy the documentary.

I should make it clear now that I actually haven't read the book, but rather I've watched the documentary of the same name by the same author, which I doubt has much difference in wording and should have identical facts as well as conclusions.

Now to my point:

Although I enjoyed the doco(book?) and agreed with most of its "facts", when it came to discussing Cannabis I was appalled.
An interview with a semi-legal (obviously experienced) cannabis grower discussing cannabis evolution doesn't sound like a great idea to start with, but when that ignoramous's comments are repeated and backed up by other more qualified persons that should know better it becomes dissapointing to say the least.
The topic I'm referring to is the evolutionary change in cannabis of an increase in resin content, which is suggested in the doco to be due to the resins ability to capture pollen and hence fertilize the plant.
Well in fact ALL the pollen captured/trapped by cannabis resin (or any other plants resin to) is totally unable fertilize that plants stigma (female reproductive parts) and hence in any way aid that plants reproductive success.
This is totally logical and 100% successful in demonstration too.

Sadly it seems that an illogical and incorrect theory was put forawrd to explain a plant feature (external resin) who's function is still under debate in the scientifc community (probably more likely a natural fly-paper/bug-killer).

Personally I think it's better not to put forward a theory for the evolution of the sturctural function of a species if that theory's not even logically possible!

Strange - Laura - NJ
This book is well written but a bit strange. Mr. Pollen bases his premise that plants manipulate mankind into shaping their future because of man's 4 desires. My son had to read it for college, so I picked it up. It is quite a "green" book with lots of progressive ideas.

informative but repetitive - J. MacCormack - North Carolina, USA
Wonderful book to sit down to from time to time and garner a deeper understanding of the history behind the Apple, Tulip, Cannibas and Potato -- it was like finding out that some of our most 'mundane' plants are actually remarkable. The premise behind the book intrigues too -- that plants can attract or manipulate humans just like hummingbirds or bees. What I felt was the downside to the book was the author's regular repetition of certain assertions, even some of the same stories. As some of the chapters dragged on, I felt like he was saying the same things over and over again, just with different words and a different anecdote. What he said in 300 pages could probably have been said in 200 ... maybe less. Looks like he could have used a stronger editor.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 06, 2010 13:48:04

Books Outdoors & Nature

Monday, September 6, 2010