The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World Paperback – May 28, 2002

In the book “The Botany of Desire”, the author, Micheal Pollan makes a compelling argument that while we may think that we are responsible for altering and modifying plants to meet our needs, plants are manipulating us by appealing to our fundamental desires. Pollan argues that plants have used human desires for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control, among others, to advance their own individual species. He applies the plant species of apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes to prove his theory. I believe that his argument is sound though he lacks a significant amount of scientific data to back his claim.Pollan starts his book with the argument that humans think that they are responsible for manipulating the apple to become sweeter and more desirable, but apples are the ones exploiting us. Humans have an undeniable desire for sweetness. While some people write off sugar and avoid it, we need it to store and use energy. We have thankfully found natural resources to curb this desire with many plants and fruits. We have grown and cultivated a variety of fruit, sugar cane, syrup, etc. to appeal to our human nature. Or have we? Apples were first brought to the United States for their bitterness and sharpness which made a decent cider for the early settlers. Over time, with selective breeding and cultivation sweet apples emerged and became widely popular. This is a misconception that I believe Pollan is trying to bring to light. What if we didn’t cultivate these sweet apples and they were the ones playing us? Apples had many reasons to evolve having sweeter tissue around their seeds. First and foremost, it helped them reproduce, and isn’t that the drive for every organism? The sweeter tissue attracted animals to pick and eat the fruit and incidentally spread the apple seeds as they went about their business. The apple’s seeds evolved to have small amounts of cyanide in them which Pollan theorizes that is “probably a defense the apple evolved to discourage animals from biting into them; they’re almost indescribably bitter” (Pollan, 10). By becoming sweeter apples have increased the chances of their reproduction and have become a better fit for their environment. While I do believe that Pollan’s arguments are strong, I do not think that they are scientific. He does have scientific concepts, but he looks at this issue with a more anthropologic view. He traveled all the way to Mount Vernon, Ohio just to hear someone’s take on “Johnny Appleseed.” He wouldn’t have done that unless he was interested in human culture and society. He wanted multiple views on how apples have affected humans and vice versa. I think that for Pollan's purposes, he doesn’t need scientific facts. His method of storytelling and hiding the real message underneath his words are much more effective.In his second chapter, Pollan continues his research into cultural elements to describe how the tulip has manipulated human’s desire for beauty to reproduce and eventually spread across the globe. Pollan traces the rise of tulip popularity to the 17th century when it grew to a symbol of status. A period from 1634 to 1637 in Holland during the Dutch Golden Age where the tulip took “a star turn on history’s main stage” (Pollan, 63). The recently discovered flower became extremely popular, specifically in Dutch culture, because it could grow faster as a bulb, so the prices skyrocketed. This “tulipomania” demonstrated how far humans would go for beauty and the tulips had attracted humans by playing into this desire. Plants have evolved to attract pollinators like bees, birds, and insects with colors and smells. Pollan describes some plant species that even try to impersonate other creatures or species to lure animals in to make sure they can be pollinated or in other cases eat them if the plant is carnivorous. Who’s to say that tulips haven’t done the same to manipulate human desires? I think that Pollan makes a good argument that tulips have manipulated humans to ensure their survival and reproduction. Pollan mentions that many cultures have their own ideal strand of the tulip and what makes it beautiful. This shows that there is not just one ideal version of a tulip, but almost every type of tulip is finding ways to be successful or powerful.Pollan introduces marijuana in his third chapter as the plant that influences human desires for intoxication. Humans have psychoactive effects after ingesting marijuana from the chemical compound called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). When ingested there are receptors in your brain and other parts of the body that the THC will bind to. This process can trigger changes in the neuronal network and the chemical signals given off. No one knows for sure why cannabis plants produce THC, but Pollan introduced a few theories. These include protecting cannabis plants from ultraviolet radiation, protection from disease, or a sophisticated defense against pests. “But whatever THC’s purpose, it's unlikely that, as Raphael Mechoulam put it, “a plant would produce a compound so that a kid in San Fransisco could get high” (Pollan, 156). Though, Robert Connel Clarke argues that the most obvious evolutionary advantage that THC offered cannabis plants was the psychoactive properties that attracted humans around the world. There are many reasons for marijuana to be producing THC and it could well be so that humans would produce marijuana in mass quantities for consumption. Pollan maintains the theory that the plant marijuana has controlled the human desire for intoxication with THC and in turn gets numerous reproduction and efficiency benefits. I appreciate Pollan’s argument for marijuana’s exploitation of humans in this chapter. He mentions that farmers of marijuana create one ideal “mother” marijuana plant and create clones from her. This is perfect for the plant because they are not diluting their perfect genes with a male’s genetic material, and they are spreading their own genes indefinitely.Lastly, Pollan argues that potatoes as the plant of control. Potatoes have had a significant effect on global agriculture and everyday diets. This only supports that potatoes have an adaptable and widespread appeal to humans. This makes the plant remarkably successful. Potatoes have traveled vast distances over time, starting in the Andes, spreading across Europe, and now globally. They are performing a plant’s ultimate goal of reproduction while aiding the human species’ survival. Potatoes are an invaluable crop to humans because of their high amount of calories and the simplistic method of farming. However, this led to a mistake of over-reliance and hurt the human population with the infamous Potato Famine in Ireland. This was a human error of relying on one sole plant and one sole strand of the species of potatoes. “Instead of betting the farm on a single cultivator, the Andean farmer, then as now, made a great many bets, at least one for every ecological niche” (Pollan, 193). Pollan is describing an attempt to develop a different spud for every environment instead of changing the environment for one spud. This was an incredible idea that led to potatoes being able to spread through a variety of environments across the globe as different strands. Throughout this chapter, Pollan describes the perspectives of many figures like farmers, scientists, and culinary experts to explore the potato species’ resilience and adaptability. I think this was a compelling argument that potatoes were not just a passive crop, but a plant that has been manipulating human desires. Potatoes have evolved to meet human needs while shaping the course of our history.Through these four plants, Pollan demonstrates how humans’ desires have been shaped by plant’s motives. Apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes have taken advantage of human’s fundamental drives for survival and pleasure. The main aspect of this book that stuck with me was that humans are self-absorbed. We tend to keep ourselves ignorant of a broad amount of knowledge. I’ve heard that history is written by the victors and humans are undoubtedly the victors of our planet. We are the ones in power and many people think that is the end of the line. We are taught to focus on our perspective of history and how we can learn from humanity’s mistakes on other humans. We rarely look outside of our own species’ point of view. Though, a mere apple or a tulip can tell us an incredible amount about our culture and our own evolution. After reading this book I can clearly see many different perspectives on growth, history, and the coevolution of plants and humans.

Thanks to a bit of trans-generational intellectual “pollination,” via the son of a friend from Atlanta who once owned a restaurant and had a passion for food, I was introduced to Michael Pollan’s work “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” a decade ago, which I have read and reviewed on Amazon. Most regrettably, I had not read a second of his works until now. The man has a lot to say; and says it all too well. It is a case of “all the news NOT repeating itself,” to invert one of John Prine’s laments.“The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” published in 2007, is subtitled: “A Natural History of Four Meals.” The number “four” is also operative in “The Botany of Desire,” which was published in 2002. It is the story of four plants: apples, tulips, cannabis and potatoes. Reflecting the theme of the title, there are four human desires that are associated with these plants: sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control, respectively.Early in the book Pollan teasingly throws out the idea that perhaps the classic view: “People cultivate plants” should be inverted. For sure, Pollan does not fall off some “New Age talk-to-the-plants” cliff (and they will talk back) but posits a sound argument that without a conscious effort, plants evolve to utilize humans and animals to make up for their lack of mobility. His introduction is entitled: “The Human Bumblebee.”Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan) means “father of the apple.” From the surrounding area the apple spread throughout the world, in part, aided by John Chapman, an American folklore hero more famously called: “Johnny Appleseed.” Pollan traveled to eastern Ohio, which, in 1806, was once the American frontier, and attempted to sort out the man from the myth, providing many an illuminating insight. Among those insights: apples were planted not for eating, but for drinking… in fermented form, and it was Prohibition that forced the apple growers to concoct the marketing slogan: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”Tulips originated in Turkey. An Austrian Ambassador to the Court of Suleyman the Magnificent in Constantinople served as the “bumblebee” in this case, bringing tulip bulbs back to Europe, where they spread to Holland and fueled one of the more famous financial “bubbles,” ironically among normally staid Calvinists, in the 17th Century. A “holy grail” among tulip cultivators is a black tulip since black occurs so infrequently in the living plant world. The grail is still elusive but Pollan is proud of his dark maroon one.Cannabis is associated with the desire for intoxication. Hidden in plain sight, as Pollan says, is the chronic problem with mind-altering substances that are abused: “toxic.” Pollan provides a brilliant exposition on this perennial flashpoint of America’s cultural wars. Anslinger, and “Reefer Madness” make the obligatory cameo appearance. Much more instructive was the update from the ‘60’s, in terms of how marijuana is raised and cultivated in the United States, and the pendulum swinging back and forth towards legalization (written in 2002, he does not anticipate its legalization in neighboring Colorado, or a handful of other states). He has justified concerns about the two “errant” plants in his backyard, noting under federal asset forfeiture laws that if a case was brought: “The People of Connecticut v. Michael Pollan’s Garden”, his land could become the property of the New Milford Police Department. Pollan introduced me to Raphael Mechoulam, an Israeli scientist who isolated the chemically active component: THC. The author provides a BRILLIANT description of “plain-ol’” vanilla ice cream as experienced in an altered state of consciousness, and questions whether, chemically there is a difference between the chemically-aided version and that induced by meditation, fasting, and other methods. Indeed, there is a “sense of wonder,” as Pollan says, about seeing things fresh and anew, as a child might, that can make a trip worthwhile, so all the news does not repeat itself.Potatoes are the subject of the last chapter, starting their journey from their historic epicenter high in the Andes and brought back to Europe by the conquering Spaniards. They may have been introduced into Ireland by a shipwreck from the Spanish armada in 1588, providing a godsend to a starving people where other crops would not readily grow. A “godsend” until the famine of the 1840’s caused a reduction by half of Ireland’s population (through starvation and emigration). The dangers of an agricultural “monoculture.” Pollan visits the headquarters of Monsanto in St. Louis, which is doing so much to introduce the entire world to the “intellectual property” of patented genes and seeds and goes off to Idaho to describe its implementation.Indicative of Pollan’s outlook and writing style is the following quote concerning his visit to the St. Louis Monsanto headquarters, and his meeting with Dave Hjelle, the company’s director of regulatory affairs: “Dave Hjelle is a disarmingly candid man, and before we finished our lunch he uttered two words that I never thought I’d hear for the lips of a corporate executive, except perhaps in a bad movie. I’d assumed these two words had been scrupulously expunged from the corporate vocabulary many years ago, during a previous paradigm long since discredited, but Dave Hjelle proved me wrong: ‘TRUST US’.”To see anew, and act anew, and the catalyst can come from a book: 6-stars for Pollan’s many, many fine insights.