What Is The Botany Of Desire Chapter Summaries

Book Review: The Botany of Desire

Michael Pollan’s book reveals the story between the relationship of Man vs Nature, and the connection it has with life on Earth. He mentions his objective for his book: to view plants in an intimate relationship with humans by looking at ourselves differently. The book creates an adventure through history to forms of life now, and examines plants through multiple points of views. The Botany of Desire demonstrates a unique comparison of the terms “Botany” and “Desire” through his four chapters:apple,tulip,marijuana, and the potato. Pollan connects human desire and its exploitation of plants through the combination of sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control.

In chapter one, Pollan depicts the sweetness of

apples(malus domestica) as a certain kind of “perfection.” He explains how the power of sweetness has lost fulfillment over time, but proceeds to be a driving force in evolution. “Could it be that sweetness is the prototype of all desire?” The chapter ventures through the evolution of the apple, and the historical advancements apple growers have made in order to change the taste of apples. For example, Pollan travels to Mount Vernon, Ohio to trace the remaining foundation of John Chapman’s apple trees(Johnny Appleseed). Pollan was enthused to trace the remains of the seeded apple trees, although the storyline dragged on. The author started to lose the focus of the plant’s perspective, and its relationship with humans. I find the chapter on sweetness lacking the ability to keep the audience focused due to the entire history of Chapman’s life with little exploration on desire. He goes to the extent to announce Chapman as a “Protestant satyr” using nature as his home, veering off from his main point:desire. Pollan makes a comparison between Chapman and the American Dionysus, bringing civilization to apples as Dionysus with wine. The importance of the chapter was focused on Chapman’s work with the apple tree such as his creation, “Johnny weed” introduced to stop malaria around his house, although I found myself distracted from the objective of the apple itself. Pollan refers back to his original idea of wild apples being naturally bitter, but grafted to the sweetness of human desire.
Chapter two explores Pollan’s boyish childhood view of flowers and the history of the Dutch.

The beauty of flowers has been taken for granted because people praise the flowers that bloom, then trash the ones that wither and die. Pollan connects the universal love for flowers in his explanation for tulips in this chapter. He makes an interesting point that people can’t afford flowers unless they have enough money to feed themselves. The priorities of society are centered on providing for their families rather than spending extra money on items like flowers that lack necessity. Pollan uses this observation to exploit the importance of flowers as a predictor of future food. In the past, people who recognized flowers became better foragers, and gained pleasure from their beauty. They understood the “object of desire” from spotting flowers in gardens, landscapes, and nature. Continuing with the object of desire, Pollan discloses the origin of beauty, plants that mammals desire. The makeup of the tulip is designed to attract specific flying insects:bees. For example, honeybees favor the radial symmetry of daisies while bumblebees prefer the bilateral symmetry of orchids. The relation with humans is similar to bees by being awakened from the petal’s colors and formal organization. Pollan does an excellent job in this chapter with his explanation of “flowers taking over the world” with their beauty and aroma

offerings.
Flashing back to historical landings of the tulip, countries found pharmaceutical applications for the tulips after its introduction to Europe. “The tulip remained itself” left the flower with an appreciation for nature rather than a Christian icon like most flowers in that time period were considered. Tulips began to sweep the Dutch into a frenzy known as "tulip mania." The flowers began to drive human desire for broken colors in the petals that drove the economic market. Semper Augustus was the most famous outbreak for the tulips that made the Dutch realize tulips developed a virus. Pollan explains the virus to be called Myzus persicae, the peach potato aphid that leaves the tulip having two pigments working in their concert. The Dutch relied so highly on the tulip that the virus was driving prices, leaving them to destroy any color outbreaks found in fields. The lost of natural beauty led to the manifestation of human affection or desire. Pollan makes a distinctive point on tulips “thievery,” meaning the tulip’s mysterious phenomenon causes a reversion in form and color in the parents. This thievery gave birth to tulipmania which generated the new rules in the rate of evolution. Pollan recognized the role beauty played within flowers, and stated a clear analysis on society's desire for attractive items.
As a plant’s sweetness and beauty changes our perception, intoxication changes our mental estate.

Pollan explains in this chapter the fine line between poison and desire, focusing on the seductive plant:marijuana. He demonstrates the poisonous effect plants have on animals that trigger the plant’s defense system. For example, cattle will develop a taste for locoweed that can prove fatal. Cannabis plants release chemicals that have the power to alter human consciousness; therefore, the desire to change our minds is hard-wired into humans. Pollan travels in time to his past experiences with growing marijuana, and how over time the plant has been become more of an issue. Cannabis plants have contributed beneficial treatments for labor pains and asthma throughout history, although perceptions changed when immigrants starting bringing marijuana over. The enforcement has increased due to human desire playing a major role in our mental estate. Pollan continues the timeline by the evolution of cannabis plants being grown outside, although due to the strict laws, the manipulation of the plant’s environment indoors has changed the way we grow plants today. The term “transparent” is used to characterize drugs that affects the consciousness, interfering with one’s ability to get through the day and obligations. The plants pose a threat to the workings of the social order. Culturally, these plants has been sacred to society by contributing to human spirituality. This chapter explores

the attraction humans have to cannabis plants, and our desire for them.
The final chapter in Pollan’s book: Control Plant: The Potato, he initiates a new type of desire in which the control of a gene is altered for our consumption. He explains the wilderness introduces new weeds, develops resistance, and leads us to the adaptation of new technology:genetically modified foods. As depicted by Pollan, “Agriculture is, its very nature...simplifying nature’s incomprehensible complexity to something humanly manageable.” The point Pollan made with genetically modified crops was humans manipulate seeds in order to produce a product that would satisfy their desires. In the case of the NewLeaf potato seeds(created by Monsanto), the objective was to kill any Colorado potato beetle that came into contact of the seed. Human control over plants has taken a huge step with crossing one gene with the other. People pointed out in the chapter have announced GMOs as a “biological revolution” that will make agriculture more sustainable to feed the world; however, Pollan explores other opinions from Organic farmers. The one point that stood out to me in this chapter was Pollan’s ability to give thought to both sides of the GMO debate. He ends the chapter with himself preparing a potato salad for a barbeque with his NewLeaf potatoes, but decides to trash the potatoes due to the everyone’s fear of potential health risks related. My evaluation of this chapter would be Pollan held an open mind through the process, although he states towards the end he had a fear of genetically modified foods due to his meetings with Steve Young or Monsanto employees. I fear GMOs will indeed “[give] corporate America one more noose around [our] neck,” as Young stated. The debate for GMOs continues with different perspectives, although Pollan fails to promote the benefits in the effectiveness of the yields from GMO crops. Overall, I enjoyed the connection the author made with human desire of altering the genes from one seed in order to simplify farming methods used today.
The Botany of Desire focused on the relationship between humans and four types of plants:apples,tulips,marijuana,potato. Pollan illustrated human manipulation in the chapter of apples and how it has transformed the modern apple into require more pesticide than any other food crop. The tulip was an influencing factor in human behavior by tulipmania capturing the beauty that attracted the Dutch. Cannabis plants made human desire intoxication to alter the way the brain operates. Lastly, the potato has contributed to the ongoing GMO debate due to biotechnology changing our relationship with nature. Pollan’s book was well-written, and influenced the way I view plants today.