The Botany Of Desire Summary

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan is an interesting perspective of how humans over the centuries have filled certain desires through the use of plants. The apple represents the desire for sweetness, the tulip for beauty, marijuana for intoxication, and the potato for control. Pollan discusses the point and importance of these four plants and their development throughout history. Chapter 1: Desire: Sweetness/ Plant: The Apple This chapter goes into depth talking about the spread of the apple in the United States, and all over the world.

In the novel, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan tells the intriguing story of how plants are domesticated from the perspective of the plant with regards to four specific plants.. The four plants he chose for discussion are the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. As he discusses the domestication of these plants, his overall focus is the desire that each of these plants have to us as humans. Pollan has written books and magazine articles among other pieces of literature that discuss the relationship between plants and humans. Throughout this informational text, Pollan tries to keep the perspective from the “plant’s-eye view of the world,” but he often slips into Pollan’s eye view of the world. As he talks about experiences that he has had with each of these plants and gives a little bit of their history, it was often hard to stay focused on the topic that he was trying to convey. However, I found that the perspectives that Pollan brings up are interesting to think about. The Botany of Desire was an interesting journal type informational novel that didn’t quite live up to my expectations of what it could have been.

The conquistadors eventually used potatoes as rations on their ships and took it back to Spain (Chapman, n.d.). From there, the potato spread to other countries. Unfortunately, the potato was “regarded with suspicion, distaste and fear.” (Chapman, n.d.) Only animals were fed the potatoes at first but as time went on, the aristocracy of Europe began to encourage the lower classes to begin cultivating potatoes. Potatoes, however, did not become a staple until roughly 1795 and the food shortages that came during the time of the Revolutionary Wars in England. (Chapman, n.d.)

Potatoes were prime to the Americas and even Europe (when they were shipped back) as they were resistant to cold and could grow in very thin soil. In Europe, it supported the sailors, and even the lower class, only adding to its value. It had also saved Ireland from extinction as it was their only choice to avoid starvation (and began a huge Irish stereotype, among

Before 1500, potatoes were not become outside of South America. By the 1840s, Ireland was so subject to the potato that the proximate reason for the Incomparable Starvation was a potato malady. Potatoes in the long run turned into an imperative staple of the eating regimen in quite a bit of Europe. Numerous European rulers, including Frederick the Incomparable of Prussia and Catherine the Incomparable of Russia, supported the development of the potato. Maize and cassava, acquainted with the Portuguese from South America in the sixteenth century, have supplanted sorghum and millet as Africa's most essential sustenance crops. sixteenth century Spanish colonizers acquainted new staple yields with Asia from the Americas, including maize and sweet potatoes, and along these lines added to populace development in Asia. Tomatoes, which came to Europe from the New World by means of Spain, were at first prized in Italy basically for their decorative esteem . From the nineteenth century tomato sauces wound up run of the mill of Neapolitan food and, eventually, Italian cooking when all is said in done. Espresso from Africa and the Center East and sugarcane from the Spanish West Independents turned into the fundamental fare product harvests of broad Latin American manors. Acquainted with India by the Portuguese, bean stew and potatoes from South America have turned into a basic piece of Indian

Every garden has their own purposes that make gardeners devote a great amount of time to take care of them. Gardeners are coming up with their own unique ways of taking care of their gardens, especially when they make profits out of it. In his book, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan claims the best gardeners of his generation have devoted themselves to growing cannabis, popularly known as marijuana. Intrigued with Pollan’s argument, I completely agree with him. Marijuana growers are the best gardeners because they perfected the plant in growing them indoors, they make good business out of it, and the plant itself fills the need of humans for transcendent altered states of consciousness.

Potatoes became a staple in the diet of many as they were discovered around the world. They are still an important part of the diet of many today. ("International year of," 2008)

Modifying plants is not a new concept. "For centuries, gardeners and farmers have been crossbreeding different species of

The potato is a remarkable food that humans can survive on for many years. Disease attacked the crop in 1845 and virtually destroyed it, producing unprecedented starvation and a migration to Liverpool. Farmers always focus on producing “the best” plant for maximum yields. These offspring are of a single parental type and are genetically uniform. However, if a virus successfully attacks the plants, it destroys everyone. On the flip side, in natural populations, genetic variation insures that some will be protected against disease. These predictions can explain why the Irish lost their entire crop in 1845 and why the Maya civilization’s corn crop was wiped out over night. In attempt to avoid this problem, breeders try to beff up the genetic

It is not uncommon for people to resist change, especially those that present new technologies. This is because people feel that the old ways worked fine and the new technologies will cause more harm than good. One of these technologies is Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs. Genetically Modified Organisms are not new since humans have been selectively breeding plants and animals for hundreds of years creating the best product possible, but the GMOs today are newer technologies. The current GMOs involve the transfer of DNA from one plant to another to achieve desired traits. According to Nelson Gerald, a genetically modified crop is made by inserting one or more genes of interest from another species into a plant cell, along with promoter and marker genetic material. The promoter material influences the location in the plant where the desired trait is produced, and the levels they are produced. The genetic marker helps identify successful transformations. After the insertion of the genetic material, the transformed cell is induced to grow into a new plant that expresses the desired traits, (Fig. 1 helps demonstrate this process).The new plant is then crossbred with other plants of the same species to achieve desired traits in existing varieties (Gerald, p.5, 2001). Although it is not perfected, the modification of plants through genetic engineering can provide benefits to society in areas such as

Welcome to the age of an agricultural revolution as everyday biotechnology continues to bring innovation to human’s most basic needs – food. Food is essential to any living organism, providing energy for our production and nutrients for our protection. Without this fundamental element, life cannot exist. Our lack to produce our own energy, like plants, causes us to become dependent on others for survival. Humans existence is attributed only to the million years of evolution our food source underwent to sustain our survival. Changing the primary nature of our food source, whether it is plant or animal, directs mankind in a dangerous future if our food dependency is permanently hampered. Welcome to the age of an agricultural devolution

Concerns for the use of monoculture date back to 1843 (Combing, n.d). Phytophthora, a water mold, destroys the roots and leaves of plants and led to a widespread disaster of the irish potato famine. By using one specific genus of potato, the water mold spread quickly, destroying vast fields of potatoes and caused nearly a million people to die, since potatoes were a major food source. Later, several diverse species of potatoes were planted and fungicides are used to prevent another major famine from happening.

Plants, animals, and seeds all have innate value and can exist on its own. They are not dependent on the value humans place on them or the various methods humans attempt to alter them. The

The potato seems to us today to be such a staple food that it is hard to believe that it has only been accepted as edible by most of the Western world for the past 200 years. Our story begins thousands of years ago, in South America—Peru,

New farming methods came to use during late 16th century. Farmers in many parts of Europe, including Ireland, France, started to raise potatoes. A plant from the “New World”, that for a long tome was seen with a big suspiciousness. A higher rate of potato