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?
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

Customer Rating:
Summary: Funny, gentle and world changing
Comment: It is a rare science book that evokes such an emotional response in me. "Beak of the Finch" by Jonathan Weiner is one, and "The Botany of Desire" is another. Pollan's discussion of four archetypal plants (apple, tulip, marijuana and potato) and our shared history with them makes for some wonderfully interesting reading. He has a great gift for allegory and metaphor, and these plants became real characters that I cared about deeply. Sprinkled with just the kind of details that I love most, the book reads like a daydream of a letter from home. Here are some examples of what I mean: the fact that without flowers there would be no mammals, which is likely the reason we human beings are partial to flowers, the overpowering smell of a marijuana hothouse in Amsterdam, the trick the French king used to encourage his starving people to eat the feared novel food from the new world: potatoes (he posted armed guards around his potato garden, but only during the day), that the beauty of a highly prized variegated tulip (worth the price of a house in today's terms) is due to viral infection, and a very chilling, yet compassionate description of industrial farming and the men who run these farms.

I bored my husband silly while I read this book, because it was just one of those books that is so fascinating you kind of can't stop yourself from saying stuff like, "HEY! Did you know marijuana growers expose their crops to 24 hours of light for the first few weeks and that they can bring a crop to maturity in 8 weeks?"

Eventually, Pollan reveals the full impact of our actions on the plant society. Not in a pedantic way, but with a brand of kindness and hope that we will understand the stewardship role that we have always had in our relationship with the plant world. The last lines of this book put it too beautifully for me to paraphrase, when he cites again the charming eccentric Johnny 'Appleseed' Chapman, and his voyage that encouraged and sustained so many of America's young cities. "I'm thinking specifically of the way he rigged up his canoe...the two hulls side by side, so that the weight of the appleseeds balanced the weight of the man, each helping to keep the other steady on the river. Laughable as an example of naval architecture, perhaps, but seaworthy as a metaphor, surely. Chapman's craft, his example, invites us to imagine a very different kind of story about man and nature: one that shrinks the distance between the two so that we might again begin to see them for what they are, and in spite of everything, will always be, which is in this boat together."

Like flowering plants, this book is beautiful, gentle, and, if people listen, world changing.

Don't miss this book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Botnay of Desire
Comment: This is a book for gardeners and people interested in history of our country.
There are four plants that changed the world. An easy read with much information. Your ideas on Johnny Appleseed will change and very pleasantly. Also on the potato. Do read this and share with friends. I have given this as a gift many times.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: worth the time
Comment: It tends to ramble in the philosophical arena, but I found his writing well researched and the questions thoughtful and thought provoking. I would recommend it for a book club or philosphy group.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Idea, Horrible Result
Comment: Mr Pollan had a great idea for a book--evolution of 4 different species of well know plants from the plant's perspective as influenced by humans. There's about 30 pages of good information to this end. The rest is horribly long and painful unrelated tangents that he clearly enjoys writing about, but have absolutely nothing to do with the subject. For instance, in covering apples he talks for freggen ever about John Chapaman, aka Johnny Appleseed. Who cares about Appleseed's sexual frustrations with a potential 10 year old bride??? Who cares about his love of sleeping in hollowed out logs, or on the snow if sleeping in the log would disturb some insects??? If you're ridiculously bored and don't mind reading about random garbage you might like this book. If you're looking for enlightenment on this subject or like a well executed book, don't even think about this one.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Short, Sweet, Insightful
Comment: I was continuously amused and enlightened about many things in this book; suffice it to say I dog-eared quite a few pages as I wanted to go back to re-read certain passages for the perspective, perhaps for the phrasing, or for the knowledge.

Humans certainly have the desire and the ability to bend nature, but a good lesson learned in this book is to let nature be itself, even as you make it do your bidding!

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