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

• Plants and Humans Influence Each Other for Mutual Benefit!

  
  By A1K1JW1C5CUSUZ on 2001-05-22
  "What existential difference is there between the human being's role in this (or any) garden and the bumblebees?" "Did I choose to plant these potatoes, or did the potato make me do it? With profound questions like these, Michael Pollan pollinates your mind with a new world view of our relationships with plants, one in which humans are not at the center. The book focuses on four primary examples of how plants provide benefits to humans that lead humans to benefit the plants (apples for sweetness, tulips for beauty, marijuana for intoxication, and the potato for control over nature's food supply). You will learn many new facts in the process that will fascinate you. The book's main value is that you will learn that we need to be more thoughtful in how we assist in the evolution of plant species.

  The book builds on Darwin's original observations about how artificial evolution occurs (evolution directed by human efforts). So-called domesticated species thrive while the wild ones we admire often do not. Compare dogs to wolves as an example. Mr. Pollan challenges the mental separation we make between wild and domesticated species successfully in the book.

  The apple section was my favorite. You will learn that John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) was a rather odd fellow who was actually in the business of raising and selling apple trees. He planted a few seeds at the homes where he stayed overnight on his travels. Mr. Chapman had apple tree nurseries all over Ohio and Indiana, which he started 2-3 years before he expected an influx of settlers. Homesteading laws required these settlers to plant 50 apple or pears trees in order to take title to the land. And these apples were for making hard apple cider, not eating apples. He was the "American Dionysus" in Mr. Pollan's view. Apple trees need to be grafted to make good eating apples. Chapman's trees produced many genetic variations, which are good for the species. Apple trees became more narrow in their genes after other sources for alcohol and sweetness became available (from cane sugar). Now, the ancient genes of apple trees are being kept in living form from Kazakhstan, before they are lost due to economic development.

  Tulips were the source of the famous Tulipmania in Holland. Rare colors occurred due to viruses. Those became extremely valuable during the tulip boom market in the 17th century. Now, growers try to keep the viruses out and we have much more dull, consistent species. We have probably lost much beauty in favor of order in the process.

  The intoxicants in marijuana are probably caused by toxins that the plants make to kill off insects. Because the plant is a weed, it grows very rapidly. There is a hilarious story about the author's experiences in growing two plants that you will love. As the antidrug war progressed, marijuana became a hothouse plant and was bred and developed to grow much more rapidly under humid, high-light conditions indoors. You will read about modern commercial farms in Holland.

  The potato story is the most complex. The Irish potato famine related to monoculture. The Incas had always planted a variety of potatoes to avoid the risk of disease. Now, biotechnology has added an insecticide to the leaves of potato plants, taking monoculture one step further. Interestingly, the insects are already becoming resistant to the insecticide. Are we building a new risk to famine with this approach? How will genetically altered potatoes affect humans? Is having consistent french fries at fast food places enough of an incentive to take this risk? These are the kinds of questions raised by this chapter.

  Mr. Pollan has described a "dance of human and plant desire that left neither the plants nor the people . . . unchanged."

  His key point is that we should be sure to include strong biodiversity in our approaches. Nature can create more variation faster than fledgling biotechnology industry can. Time has proven that biodiversity has many advantages for humans while monoculture has usually proven to have at least one major drawback. In reality, we can probably have both.

  If you are like me, you will find Mr. Pollan's personal experiences with the plants and his investigations of the historical figures to be fascinating. He is a good story teller, and a fine writer.

  After you read this book, take a walk through a park or a garden and think about Mr. Pollan's argument. Then consider how these principles can be applied to help ideas change, improve, and grow in more valuable ways.

  Look at life from many different perspectives . . . and live more intelligently and beneficially!

  
  
  

• Some of the Most interesting Botany You'll Ever Read.

  
  By A2VR6MIAADZGML on 2001-06-14
  Two different people sent me copies last week of Michael Pollan's book, The Botany of Desire. I'm a writer (Allergy-Free Gardening, from Ten Speed Press) myself and a lifetime horticulturist and I guess they figured I'd appreciate this book. They were right too. I found this book extremely hard to put down. Pollan is a writer first and a botanist second but he is remarkably observant about horticultural matters. He is also unusually talented at explaining complex ideas and he does so in a way that is fresh, fun, often funny, and suprisingly profound. Pollan's section on Johnny Appleseed alone is worth the price of the book. Here Johnny is a multi-dimensional character, one not just eccentric, but a shrewd fellow with great vision and considerable human frailty. The Botany of Desire is chiefly the history of the tulip, apples in America, cannabis, and the potato. This may not sound like the recipe for a really satisfying read, but in Michael Pollan's more than able hands, it certainly is. If you enjoy gardening, history, or just plain old very decent writing, I expect you too would appreciate this excellent book.
  
  

• Like candy, sweet without substance.

  
  By AP9A8TDKR7J0L on 2001-07-24
  Botany of Desire is to good evolutionary biology and natural history writing what Curious George is to Gorillas in the Mist.

  The stars Michael Pollan gets are for his lyrical writing, for making me think a little more deeply about a few plants for a couple of hours. He gets no stars for the natural history or for substance. This was an essentially substanceless book. A few funny anecdotes strung together without interior logic or any constancy of theme.

  What's his main thesis? He wants us to consider that plants evolved in order to attract our participation in their propogation. Well, that's pretty ho-hum since it's standard evolutionary theory. Of course, we as humans have a greater effect than the bees do, but the selfish plant gene is operating under the same restraints whether its seeking a human or an apian propogator. So, he has no truly novel concept to deliver. Nor is it novel to suggest that plants shaped human evolution. This reciprocity of effect is old news.

  Good natural history doesn't have to deliver something new. Many successful natural history books take solid, long-known ideas and put them across to the public in an effective, way. However, Pollan doesn't do that either. In fact, he merely collects a few observations, speculations and his own personal circumperambulations of, about and around a plant and tosses them into the hopper. His chapter on marijuana was so incoherant I began to think it was deliberate - an exemplar of marijuana's effect.

  This bricolage of a book is pretty to listen to, but lacking much of value to say. A bon bon, a froth and frosting, lacking any substance. In other words, Pollan doesn't have much to say, but he does say it rather well.
  
  

• A good, but questionable, effort

  
  By A2EKT379TIWMDY on 2001-07-22
  Pollan's The Botany of Desire is certainly a fascinating book, and I would say that it is also a valuable read, but not for its scientific accuracy or integrity. Firstly, the author is not a scientist but a journalist, and we all know that journalists tend to glorify and exaggerate. His argument itself is attractive in some ways but consistently equivocal and vague. Though skeptical throughout, I did enjoy this book for the author's fluid writing, good sense of humor, and solid attempts and evolutionary insight.

  Pollan claims that that the plants we domesticate have evolved to please our senses and thus encourage us to grow them in vast amounts, in effect, helping them to propagate. At first, this is a very attractive idea, but with further thought it does not hold up. Are people and the plants they grow commercially really in an obligate mutualistic relationship? Well, yes, they are. Human society, particularly in industrially developed countries, has become dependent on domesticated crops. But I would argue that we have moulded these crops to our own ends; the influence of natural selection upon these crops' ancestors is not as significant as the artificial selection we exerted upon them. Yes, apple trees did first have to get our attention before we would start growing them voluntarily, but we have artificially selected the apples that you and I eat today. Those huge Granny Smiths and Red and Golden Delicious you see at the grocery are not wild type species in the least bit. They are as much a designed piece of technology as is a finely tuned engine, and the orchard in which they grow is not really different from a factory. These domesticated species would never have flourished in a primitive environment, and they are totally defenseless to pests and other threats without the aid of their inventors, us. What difference does this make? We are still producing large numbers of them; isn't that all that counts? Well, you could always say that we are propagating the apples, potatoes, cannabis, whatever, but we produce them on our terms, not theirs. We artificially select the characters we want, and then we clone them by vegetative methods. The plants were not and are not evolving to please us; they are being manipulated to please us. Think about all the seedless fruits we have developed and sustained (grapes, bananas, watermelon, pinneapple, just to name a few). This process is the equivalent of evolutionary castration, reducing these plants to nothing more than a toolbox of malleable biotic mechanisms. They are no longer independently evolving; we sustain them solely for our own benefit, and the genetic lines of the plants themselves are frozen in time.

  Now that I have griped, I must say that this book is not without its benefits. I had not really thought about plants the way Pollan presents here, and I must thank him for opening my eyes in this respect. Although I don't agree with him, I derived great value in following his thought process about domesticated plants. For this reason, I would recommend this book to those who would like to debate an interesting evolutionary topic that is a nice twist on traditional perspective.
  
  

• Fabulous....

  
  By A1G56KHOUOFWDW on 2002-11-06
  Read this book and you may never eat a conventionally grown potato again. I know I won't. If I hadn't been a dedicated organic gardener for over 40 years, I would become one after reading THE BOTANY OF DESIRE. I find it incredibly puzzling that more people haven't bitten the organic bullet. I truly believe a diet of conventionally grown food can shorten your life and bring on all sorts of aches, pains, and illnesses you might not otherwise suffer. Organic gardening works and the stuff you grow is better for you. If you can't grow it, for goodness sakes, hustle on down to your closest Whole Foods store and buy it. Organic food may be more expensive than conventional foods, but in the long run you will save on medical bills.

  Michael Pollen's book is simply the best set of gardening essays I've read in a long while, maybe ever. And that's saying a lot because I am a big fan of gardening books (I've reviewed over 100 of them for Amazon). I haven't read something so enjoyable since Henry Mitchell's columns and books. It's not often a book of garden essays can make you laugh (misadventures with Mary Jane), make you cry (one million Irish dead of starvation), make you angry (one million Irish dead), and make you smile (is there any tulip so lovely as `The Queen of the Night?'

  Pollan covers four plants, Apples, Tulips, Marijuana, and Potatoes. His first chapter on apples, disabused me of all my notions about Johnny Appleseed. I had read Anna Pavord's book THE TULIP, so the tulip section of Pollan's book was the least interesting for me, although he added some interesting anecdotal information.

  The best section of this book as far as I am concerned is the chapter on Marijuana. My husband is a substance abuse counselor and I recommended the chapter to him. It could have been titled, "Everything you ever wanted to know about Marijuana that they didn't tell you in medical school or criminology class." If you haven't yet decided the U.S. government officials who devised the war on drugs are nuts, read this chapter and you will become convinced. Drug war indeed!!! Didn't we learn anything with Al Capone??

  The section on the potato plant is downright scary. Pollan's adventures with Monsanto are illuminating. Once again, the feds come out as the dumb bunnies. Or, maybe it's the elected officials and their appointees who won't let the EPA and USDA do it's job. The material on evolution in this section nicely complements Steve Jones' DARWIN'S GHOST. Monsanto is in the process of obtaining patents on natural substances and evolutionary processes that will affect the whole food chain-and the CEO says "trust me". Yeah, right.

  Do yourself a favor, during the cold weather ahead. Curl up in an easy chair with a cup of tea and read this book. Whether you garden or not, you will love it.
  
  

• Plants Modify Humans
  By A1XXJ6I7K2I7SI on 2001-08-08
  Michael Pollan likes bees, and mentions them frequently in _The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World_ (Random House). "A bumblebee would probably... regard himself as a subject in the garden and the bloom he's plundering for its drop of nectar as an object. But we know that this is just a failure of his imagination. The truth of the matter is that the flower has cleverly manipulated the bee into hauling its pollen from blossom to blossom." His thesis in his book is that plants have not manipulated just bees, but humans as well in the ten thousand years since agriculture started. If we have a success with a plant, it is just as true to say that the plant is having a success with us. We may have learned plenty, but the plants have learned as well: make a flashier flower, a tastier tuber and those humans will do just what you want. Pollan examines apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes and finds that we are serving them well.

  Apples we grow for sweetness, and sweetness surrounds our image of Johnny Appleseed, but Pollan shows that this strange character was not delivering apple orchards to the pioneers as much as he was delivering the alcoholic beverage cider, and incidentally he was making preserves of wild apple trees. Tulips we grow for beauty, and it is a beauty that has driven people wild. Pollan reviews the story of the Tulipomania of seventeenth century Holland, and shows that by what Darwin called "artificial selection," humans chose tulips that looked fancier, and tulips got fancier in order to be chosen. Marijuana we grow for intoxication, and Pollan admires what has happened with it: "_This_ was what the best gardeners of my generation had been doing all these years: they had been underground, perfecting cannabis." The government has boosted the potency of marijuana by forcing growing inside, where even carbon dioxide can be forced into the plants. The strangest and most troubling of the four stories is the potato, which we grow as a staple crop. Pollan got hold of the New Leaf potato from Monsanto, genetically engineered to have a toxin throughout the plant that kills beetles. The problem is that the toxin is behaving differently from natural toxins. Bees take it in pollen to other plants, and we know that monarch butterflies die when they eat milkweed dusted with pollen with the toxin in it; will this happen in the field? Pollan's potatoes grow into fine specimens, needing less worry and care than his other potatoes, but they fail as a harvest; he can't make himself eat them.

  Pollan is an avid gardener and writes about these plants, all of which he has himself raised at one time or other, with an enjoyable wit and clarity. There is plenty of science packed into his chapters, as well as amusing personal stories and cautionary tales. Most important, his lesson of how plants are not just objects for our manipulation but are linked in pushing us along as we push them provides a vital evolutionary lesson.
  
  

• AN APPLE IS NOT JUST AN APPLE!
  By A3SN9EF7GTNEU2 on 2001-06-04
  Michael Pollan has an incredible gift to tell a story and captivate his readers. After reading this book you will never again be able to look out the window at your garden without feeling some assimilation to Nature's harvest, particularly if apples and potatoes are among the fare, and the tulips are prolific. If marijuana also happens to be hidden among the pretty green foliage, well....naughty you! However, these are the four plants the author uses to portray the significant relationship between man and the plant world. The sweetness of the apple, the use of the potato in an attempt to control nature, the exhilarating beauty of the tulip, and the intoxicating abilities of marijuana are all discussed in a spirited and fascinating manner. In reaction to anti-drug control, marijuana became a hothouse plant, and moving it to a controlled environment sometimes brought on a lot more "heat" than initially found in the hothouse! I enjoyed the author's exhilarating writing style and refreshing outlook on man and nature; the book is a pleasure to read.
  
  
• How a seed, bulb, tuber and weed conspired to rule the world
  By A5HMT6ZOBUAVM on 2001-07-02
  Is that plant waving its leaf at me to come over there?! No, It can't be!, but after reading the BOTANY OF DESIRE don't be too surprised if that thought doesn't flit across your mind too; and no, you don't have to be under the influence of one of the plants Michael Pollan talks about to think like this. Our view of plants as the passive partner in the long coevolutionary life they have shared with man is a paradigm that this book seeks to shatter. "We automatically think of domestication as something we do to other species", says Mr Pollan "but it makes just as much sense to think of it as something certain plants and animals have done to us." The title of the book hints at this underlying premise. It is made clear very quickly that Mr Pollan believes that you can't understand certain human desires and behavior without first appreciating the plant world and its interrelationship with ours.

  Thus he divides his book into four parts, each dealing with a specific plant and a human desire: apples and sweetness, the tulip and beauty, cannabis and intoxication and lastly, the common potato and believe it or not, the desire for control. This book is a mix of fascinating history, approachable science, philosophical whimsy, humorous insights into nature, and simply good writing.

  The history of the tulip is well told. From its development by the Ottoman turks through to the period of "tulipomania" that saw it achieve "world domination" in its appeal to humans, but ironically at the same time contributing to a sort of madness that gripped the Dutch, and brought about economic ruin in 17th century Holland. The history of the cannabis plant is also very interesting as are the authors comments on the drug war, specifically how it has simply sent growers indoors where a much more potent hybrid has been developed. If you look at the world from the plant's view as Mr Pollan tries to do throughout, you would simply say that this was probably planned by the cannabis plant in the first place!

  The best expression of this plant view of the world is provided by the following example. Even where we know that we were the active agent, in control, the domesticator, and have brought nature and plants under our thumb through agriculture, Mr Pollan says "it makes just as much sense to think of agriculture as something the grasses did to people as a way to conquer the trees."

  Enjoy this fascinating bit of history, evolutionary biology, nature writing, and pure good fun, and...what is that plant over there doing?
  
  

• where's the editor?
  By AJH0HVQ6PP0XV on 2002-03-20
  A good editor could have trimmed this to about half its size and the result would have produced an only marginally passable text. The idea that angiosperms have co-opted humans is a very thin hook to hang a book on. Plants achieved this with fauna millions of years before man came on the scene. The earths reductive oxygen rich atmosphere is the result of the huge sucess of angiosperms; plants don't need human intervention, they've done quite well without us. Pollan confuses the reader further by suggesting that plants are sort of able to think up ways to make themselves more atractive to humans. He refutes his own theisis over and over however, when he lets slip that apple horticulture is made up of grafting a tiny selection of varieties; that covert pot growers never allow the plants to actually seed out; that modern potato agruculture leaves as little to nature as possible. These practices do little or nothing to help the plant in question pass genetic material into future generations, rather, plants selected by humans over time, may be so co-opted by us to have become sort of genetic dead ends. The book becomes a polemic for anti bt technology in the potato chapter ,whiich quickly makes that section mind bendingly dull. Other reviewers have suggested that the chapters would stand alone in the New Yorker but I don't think that weekly would allow such a flawed idea to get past the editors but if it did , they'd have a lot of cutting to do.
  
  
• Do not be fooled by the title
  By A2VNGRQ182NJLE on 2002-10-23
  Despite the title, this book contains very little botany and almost everything is a history of animals' relationship with plants and how humans affected certain plants rather than the other way around. The text focuses on four plants (apple trees, tulips, marijuana plants, and potatoes) which gives the author little opportunity to explore the affect of plants on the rest of the world. I would have preferred the author turned the subject around to show major ways that plants affect the world with many different plant examples for each effect.

  The author mostly rambles through loosely related anecdotes that stand on their own and might do better as short stories in magazines or the Sunday edition of the paper. His central premise---that plants purposedly affect the world---is almost completely abandoned after a few pages. Indeed, most of the stories show man's breeding of plants for specific characteristics rather than the other way around. The anecdotes are more about the author's activities while researching the book than the topic itself, and he comes across as a rube most of the time. Although that may appeal to some readers, I felt misled by the advertising and title.

  Some of the histories are interesting, but are poorly supported which creates the tone of a high school book report rather than a story written by someone with a command of the subject. The reader would be better off reading separate books on the history of each of the four plants. A good editor could cut two-thirds of this book and still keep all of the good stuff, although he would change the title to not mislead the reader.

  In all, the premise is a wonderful idea, but the book is poorly executed.
  
  

• Reworked 'Selfish-gene' theory
  By AFVBYTVP8C4LW on 2005-01-01
  This book came to me highly recommended, and the title has some sizzle. Unfortunately, it wasn't the sort of meditation on botany that I enjoy. Despite my reaction, it is obviously satisfying many readers. I find this more interesting than the text.
  
  My problems begin on paragraph 3:
  "A bumblebee would probably consider himself as a subject in the garden and the bloom he's plundering for its drop of nectar as an object. But we know that this is just a failure of his imagination. The truth of the matter is that the flower has cleverly manipulated the bee into hauling its pollen from blossom to blossom."
  
  This is a twist on Dawkins' famous 'selfish gene' argument. Dawkins argues that you and I represent vehicles our genes have created to insure their 'survival'. Our genes have provided us with plenty of mindless passions which insure the gene's survival, not ours. We, the vehicles, emerge, reproduce and die. The genetic matter is passed on from generation to generation. The gene is immortal.
  
  When Pollan elevates the flower to 'conscious subject', capable of tricking the bumblebee into heavy labor, he does for the flower what Dawkins did for the gene. The site of conscious control transfers from the active to the passive, from the traditional to the surprising, from you and I to 'it'. This metaphorical trick uses a familiar metaphorical allusion which suggests 'consciousness' has physical location, and within that location resides a 'little man' (much like you or I), who watches something of a TV show presented by the senses, before deciding what actions to take.
  
  For idol worshipers, like the ancient Greeks, the 'little man' Dionysus might reside in the statue. For Descartes, the 'little man' was in the pineal gland. For Mary Shelly, he was in the brain Dr. Frankenstein stitched into the monster's head. For Dawkins he is in the gene. For Pollan, he is in the flower. The common thread here is the shift of responsibility from 'me' to the 'little man'. It is comforting, as long as we don't look too closely at the notion. When we look closely, the little man argument becomes silly. A 'little man' must have his own 'little man', which in turn must have his own 'little man', ad infinitum. Nothing about the nature of responsibility is addressed.
  
  Pollan follows this format. We are told about the powerful genetic (little man) creativity of the original apple grove in Kazakhstan. We are informed of Johnny Appleseed's link to the Dionysian god-head. We learn about profiteer efforts to contain the life force (little men) of tulips of fixed shape, size and color. The `little men' in marijuana plants allow their growers to out-fox the government agents. So, Pollan is really doing nothing but offering comforting nostrums and hoping no one looks very closely.
  
  
• Soft-spoken, but packs a punch
  By ABN5K7K1TM1QA on 2001-09-23
  Pollan makes the rather striking point in the Introduction that we and our domesticated plants are involved in a coevolutionary relationship. We use them and they in turn use us. The bumblebee thinks that he is the "subject in the garden and the bloom he's plundering for its drop of nectar" is the object. "But we know that this is just a failure of his imagination. The truth of the matter is that the flower has cleverly manipulated the bee into hauling its pollen from blossom to blossom." (p. xiv)

  And so it is with us. There is no subject and no object. The grammar is all wrong. We plant and disperse the apple, thinking we act from our volition, yet from the apple's point of view, it has enticed us through its bribe of sweetness to further its propagation. It has played upon our desire. The same can be said of every other plant "domesticated" by humans. As Pollan points out, from a larger point of view our farms and gardens are just another part of the "wild" environment. And we, too, are part of that environment--increasingly a most significant part. The plants, and of course the cows, the ants, the roaches, the dogs and the cats, adjust to the environment, or they don't. The ones that do will flourish. Those that don't, the mighty oak, perhaps, the hard wood trees of equatorial jungles, the tigers and the condor, that cannot, will go the way of the dodo.

  This idea is not original with Pollan, of course, but nowhere have I seen it presented so convincingly. In a sense we are not the doer, we are the done. Pollan illustrates his thesis in four chapters on the apple, the tulip, cannabis, and the potato.

  In the chapter on tulips and the tulip mania we learn that we are probably hard-wired to love flowers. Why? Because "the presence of flowers...is a reliable predictor of future food." (p. 68) We love what is good for us. We find beauty in that which nourishes. Pollan adds that "recognizing and recalling flowers helps a forager get to the fruit [that is to come] first." (p. 68) I might add that our love for little animals is both in their resemblance to our children and (hidden from our consciousness) their potential nutritional value in a time of famine. One might watch on PBS's Nature series to see how lovingly the big cat doth lick its prey.

  In the chapter on marijuana Pollan admits to growing the noxious weed in his garden among the potatoes andthe tulips, but incurs paranoia since such horticulture is against the law. He points with restraint to the absurdity of the anti-marijuana laws, to the unconstitutional seizure of property by the marijuana police, etc., but one senses that he's pulling his punches. Or perhaps he feels that something is gained by using a quiet voice. He goes to Amsterdam and finds out just how potent the new marijuana has become. He views an indoor marijuana grow room and sees how sinsemilla is produced while noting that cannabis has become America's number one cash crop. (p. 130). He also notes that "the rapid emergence of a domestic marijuana industry represents a triumph of protectionism" (p. 131). Yes, Virginia, the drug war is artificially supporting the high price of marijuana and protecting domestic "farmers" from foreign competition.

  The chapter on the apple concentrates on the life and career of John Chapman, AKA Johnny Appleseed, in which Pollan transforms the Disney-ish Christianized American folk hero into "the American Dionysus." The reason? The apple seeds that Chapman dispersed grew not into Red Delicious apples or Macintoshes but into scrawny little things, mostly too bitter to eat that were made into hard cider, which contained about three percent alcohol, the drink of default for the pioneers. They loved him for it, and occasionally there did indeed grow out of the cider orchards a tree or two that brought forth fruit that could be eaten with pleasure, and made into pies and butter....

  The final chapter on the potato has Pollan planting Monsanto's genetically engineered NewLeaf potato, a potato that produces its own insecticide as part of the potato itself by using a gene borrowed from a common bacterium found in the soil. Pollan weighs the significance of this while recalling the history of the potato from its origins in the Andes through its economic effect on Europe, and especially Ireland, to its status today. He comes out strongly against monoculture and in favor of biodiversity. He reports on Monsanto's infamous "Terminator" technology, genetic alteration of plants so that their seeds are sterile, requiring the farmer to become dependent upon Monsanto for seed, a technology that Monsanto "has forsworn" following "an international barrage of criticism." (p. 233)

  This a very pretty book written in an understated style about how we deceive ourselves, how we fail to see the world as it really is; how we see the world from a singular and restricted point of view, we as subject and actor, the rest of the environment as acted upon, when in truth, we are just part of the larger ecology, part of the process. We are creatures that kid ourselves to make more palpable our morally ambiguous behavior.

  My favorite insight of many in the book comes from page 247 where Pollan, in recalling the brilliant time-lapse photography from David Attenborough's PBS series, "The Private Life of Plants," observes, "...our sense of plants as passive objects is a failure of imagination, rooted in the fact that plants occupy what amounts to a different dimension."
  
  
  
  
  

• Whose Yard?
  By A2JZTC54D25K0O on 2001-05-14
  I bought this book to send to my college student son, an amateur botanist. But before I mailed it, I thought I'd read the first few pages. Six days later, I am sorry to close the book after devouring it with fascination and delight. There I was out in the yard today all alone and thinking in quite new ways about weeds and plants and insects and dirt. Maybe I wasn't alone. The apple tree in the corner was flowering to beat the band. My tulips were beguiling me to think about what kinds I need to order for next year. I was planting potatoes, cutting the gnarly pieces that hold their eyes and wondering if their genes were "natural." If I had a hidden crop of cannabis somewhere in the little empire of my yard (my yard or the plants' yard?), I'd have been surrounded by the four plants that Michael Pollan uses to tweak our sense of who is running the show.
  
  
• Impossible to set down!
  By on 2001-05-17
  Michael Pollan has written a hugely entertaining and wonderfully informative book. He takes us on a wild ride through the garden, changing our perspective forever, alternating between historical tale, vivid description of life in the garden and witty aside. It's a breathtaking book, a sure classic.

  I'm not lending my copy to anyone or I'll never get it back!!
  
  

• Excellent book
  By A14UM7LOF20W6P on 2002-01-15
  This is an amazing book.
  Author Pollan takes us on a journey through history, botany, and the human psyche through examination of four plants - the apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato.
  Recurring themes through the book are how plants benefit from encouraging human attention, and the dangers of monoculture, especially how modern man has taken the diversity available in nature and severely limited that diversity, limiting the plants' ability to respond to environmental challenges.
  Throughout the book he sprinkles tidbits of information on the plant described, and on the surrounding human culture. He reveals, for instance, that the apple was not only one of the only sources of sweetness in early America, but that the main use of apples in early America was cider. Because we have so limited the original diversity of the apple into just a few strains, apples require large amounts of artificially-applied pesticide to fight the continually-adapting apple pests.
  He explains not only how the tulip mania in Holland rose and fell, but why the prized feathered or "broken" tulips were less hardy.
  In the discussion on marijuana, Pollan diverges into interesting discussions of the chemistry of human consciousness, how psychoactive plants interact with our consciousness, society's reaction to the use of marijuana, and how strengthened prohibitions against marijuana have ironically led to more potent marijuana.
  Talking about the potato, Pollard discusses the dangers of genetically engineered plants - bringing in a pesticide gene from a bacteria to the potato, which results in not only biological dangers, but the danger of putting big business in tight control of agriculture. Pollard also discusses not only how the Irish potato blight came to be, but why it particularly impacted the Irish.
  Woven through all these discussions is the theme of the split human attitude toward nature - admiring its wildness, while attempting to exert maximum control over it.

  You'll enjoy this book - as you will a similar book (though less esoteric) - _An Empire of Plants: People and Plants that Changed the World_ by Toby and Will Musgrave, which explores the worlds of tobacco, sugar cane, cotton, tea, poppies, quinine and rubber.
  
  

• YES, you really SHOULD read this book RIGHT AWAY.
  By A2FRX2WDLFYAP0 on 2002-05-07
  This book languished on my shelf for far too long, until one of the dozen or so people who've recommended it to me finally threatened to summarize it in detail if i didn't take the plunge.

  I'm exceedingly glad that i did.

  The book is breathtaking, and at 245 pages it reads like a breezy 15. Granted, an editor might have trimmed it here and there, but as it stands it's as close to perfect as books get these days. And considering how ripe and firm and sweet and tart and purely delicious it is, the juice running down my chin by the end is really only a pleasure.

  For one thing, these four topic plants - apple, tulip, cannabis, potato - are arranged in a surprisingly delightful order. Going into the book with only the barest knowledge of its particulars, i was at first seduced by Pollan's lucid pastoralism, then increasingly riveted through the remainder of the book. Really, it just gets better and better as you go along.

  But while his discussions of the topic plants are crucial to its success, most of all this is a book about power - who or what has power, how power works, and whether our wills will even allow us to address these questions.

  I think those who call this work "natural history" or "gardening" are at least partly missing the point.

  It's a brilliant study of the Apollonian-Dionysian dialectic - a fundamental dynamic thoroughly denied by our culture, but absolutely essential to even the most basic understanding of it.

  And it's poetry - beautiful, frightening, invigorating, fluid, challenging, mind-expanding, and dangerous.

  Happy reading!
  
  

• I desired more botany
  By A3DET8JZRKSF2P on 2002-05-10
  I can't say I didn't enjoy this book; there were many moments when I was engrossed by it. For instance, I found fascinating the discussion of how marijuana has changed since the 70s, the description of an organic potato farm in comparison to a conventional one, and the tale of how the apple traveled from Kazakhstan to America.

  Yet as interesting as some of these stories were, there were many others that fell flat, like the longwinded comparisons between Johnny Appleseed and the Greek god Dionysus. Surely, the distinction between what is or is not interesting is drawn partly by individual preference. But I also think the structure of the book has a good deal of blame to share.

  BOTANY OF DESIRE is divided into four parts (apple, tulip, marijuana, potato) each focusing on how these plants developed, through evolution, distinctive methods of appealing to our desires (for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control respectively). The idea is that plants use us as much as we think we use them. It's a good premise, but he doesn't stick to it in any structured way. He never strays too far from the theme, but neither does he have much of a methodical argument. Instead he tells stories, but at the risk of telling various, disparate ones that often ramble.

  This is less a book to deepen your understanding of nature or botany and more a way to increase your store of food lore (in the guise of an argument about evolution). So if that's what interests you and you like books such as Margaret Visser's MUCH DEPENDS ON DINNER, then I'd recommend this book. It's not that great as a book on science or evolution. But though I'm being a little hard on the book, I must admit that Pollan has made me want to start a garden.
  
  

• Bad science, poor research
  By A3BBN7ZH4THDAG on 2003-05-12
  Michael Pollan starts off with what sounds like an interesting thesis: plants have manipulated humans for their own ends. Ambitious? Yes. Especially when trying to champion a "plant's-eye view of the world." Things start with a lazily-researched section on Johnny Appleseed. When Pollan reaches his second epiphany in the book: "[Appleseed] was kind of like a Satyr without the sex", one feels this thesis isn't going too far.

  What follows is a collection of musings on everything from the phallic shape of a tulip to Apollo and Dionysus. Monocultures are bemoaned. This would seem to be a pyrrhic victory for the plants, but this is not addressed.

  What is unfortunate about this book is that it has and will be read by many people who have not been exposed to much science writing and, even worse, think that what Pollen is writing about is well-reasoned and insightful. It is neither. Dates and facts are routinely confused and the grasp of theology is as weak as science. If one is interested in evolution, Stephen Jay Gould is a good place to start; for natural history, Diane Ackerman is a great writer who also knows how to do her research.
  
  

• What's all the hype?
  By A3N24B6BGW6ZA4 on 2001-06-15
  This book needed severe editing to remove redundancies. His point of view is eye-opening, and could have made a fascinating article in The New Yorker magazine. Time and again in each chapter, the author repeats the same anecdotes and snippets of information. His editor should be ashamed. I am irritated to have wasted time and money on this book.
  
  
• Entertainment - not very informative
  By on 2001-11-26
  I found Pollan's work interesting. This book brings the idea home that certain plants evolved to fulfill certain human cravings and in doing so ensured the continuation of there own species. A somewhat different, although not new, perspective on how people are still not entirely removed from the natural environment and that these natural forces are still acting upon us.
  His writing was very entertaining. The chapters on potatoes and tulips were quite interesting. The chapter on apples kept my attention but he spent too much energy on the history of Johnny Appleseed and less time on the natural history of the apple itself. The chapter on cannabis was a waste and could possibly have been designed to generate a greater audience instead of giving any useful information on the biological design of the plant itself. Overall, anecdote and speculation back his ideas on these plants. It is hardly a book for those seriously interested in natural history. Again, it was entertaining but not much more than that.
  
  
• Conversational prose, brimming with allusions
  By A3E6LBVNYN7VIH on 2002-03-31
  I just finished this lovely little book,and would highly reccommend it. If nothing else, this book prepares one for many interesting conversations. I am now knowledgable about the true Johnny Appleseed, the tulip craze of Holland, the highly specialized marijuana culture, and new developments in the genetic engineering of potatoes. (To name a few!)
  The fact that Pollan is not a scientist, but an avid gardener and researcher, among other things, should be considered an asset to the reader. He avoids esoteric scientific terminology, but the text remains sophisticated because his allusions prove huge amounts of research. Each part of the book, each "desire", has its own special charm. I would be hard pressed to choose a favorite. This book truly opens one's eyes to "a plant's-eye view of the world". Though by no means the be-all-end-all on this topic, it is a beautiful natural history.
  
  
• A Pleasurable, Interesting Read
  By A3DE1IYJGU5HPW on 2002-07-12
  I doubt I would have picked up a book called "The Botany of Desire" if not for some very strange circumstances. I needed something to read while waiting in the emergency room, and my best friend gave this book to my wife for her birthday. She's the gardener, and my taste in literature usually runs towards the fictive, but I found myself enjoying "TBOD" in spite of myself.

  Michael Pollan operates off of an unusual, but simple proposition: that plants have evolved to use human beings as much as we have evolved to use plants. He uses four examples to illustrate his point: the apple (sweetness), the tulip (beauty), marijuana (intoxication), and the potato (control), each plant representing a basic human desire. The way those plants use our desires is evolutionarily a good thing for the plant, allowing them to propagate like mad and become hardier and far more resilient to weather and disease.

  As some of the other reviewers have noted, "TBOD" is pretty light on the actual science, but the target audience here isn't scientists or those who require heavy amounts of scientific proofs to enjoy a book. It's a prose book, written for people who have little working knowledge of plants or the garden, and I found the historical anecdotes Pollan provided much more entertaining than his actual thesis (which is kind of one of those "well, duh!" things anyway). His deconstruction of the Johnny Appleseed myth (I was born in Central Ohio, and grew up with it, so it was interesting to read the facts) was priceless, as was his treatment of the historical role of flowers and drugs like marijuana.

  "TBOD" is well-written, and Pollan has a mastery of prose rare in writers these days. His words not only flow off the tongue (or page, if you will), he knows how to craft a sentence and a paragraph to create and enhance the mood of the passage - it's a deft scribbling hand, indeed. If you want a guide on gardening and plant breeding, look elsewhere. If you want a good read about plants historically and evolutionarily speaking, check out "TBOD."

  Final Grade: B+
  
  

• A Great Read
  By on 2001-05-11
  From time to time a book comes along that makes you see the world in an entirely new way. Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire is that sort of book. Pollan picks four plants--the tulip, the apple, the potato, and cannabis--and shows how these plants have shaped us--determined our lives--as much as we have theirs. After you finish this eloquent, lively, original book, nature will never look quite the same to you again.
  
  
• Through a Potato's Eyes
  By A17IW44FV0HUTY on 2002-07-21
  Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire is a collection of four essays on four different plants, each representing a desire that humans have: apples (sweetness), tulips (beauty), marijuana (intoxication), and potatoes (control). Pollan's writing is clear and purposeful, full of the kind of rampant speculation that would get a real scientist in trouble (or labeled as a "pop scientist" as Carl Sagan was), but perfect for the gardener-turned-investigator that Pollan is. In high school, we learn that plots boil down to basic structures, one of them being human vs. nature. Pollan attempts to flip that and write a book that is nature vs. humans by focusing on how the plants benefit from the years of selection by humans. Although the book is obstensibly about the plants, Pollan introduces you to a number of people who provide both the assistance and the foils for his natural protagonists, like: Johnny Appleseed (a real figure) and Bill Jones (who is more interested in a St. Appleseed); Monsanto, their captive customers, and the off-the-grid organic farmer Mike Heath; Bryan R., a breeder and grower of marijuana in Amsterdam, who is both frightened and proud of his patch of [marijuana]; and Dr. Pauw, who owned all but one of the most desired tulips during the mania that hit Holland.

  The style of the book resembles that of John McPhee, partly because of its four-essay structure, but also in the short, broken sections that flit back-and-forth in time, place and thought. Pollan, unlike McPhee, has a conclusion to draw from his subject, though, and that is the need to support biodiversity and his fear of monoculture--be it a natural one like the reliance on the "lumper" potato in Ireland that led to the Great Potato Famine or the artificial one of human culture, where people show a range of interest on many things, not just the tulip (or dot.com) of the moment. Reading between the lines, one can celebrate not only the wonder of nature but also fear the danger of hubris in thinking that we are separate from that nature, that we are not as changed by it as we change it. In these days of global warming and other environmental pressures, it's a lesson we would all do well to heed.
  
  

• Irresponsibly metaphorical
  By A1Q53TLNBY9BHU on 2002-06-26
  Exploiting irresponsible metaphor, Pollan writes his book from the plant's point of view. He questions the division of the world into subjects and objects and asks, "What if the grammar is all wrong?"

  Sure, it just might be overstated to strictly describe human beings as if they reign over artificial selection. However, to try to flip-flop the perspective is the wrong approach (just as two wrongs don't make a right). To think such a perspective will enlighten or say something even heuristically useful about plants by employing a personified metaphor is patently absurd. For example, Pollan states that plants "have been inventing new strategies for survival" and asks "Why should plants bother to devise the recipies for so many complex molecules and then expend the energy needed to manufacture them?"

  The fact is that evolution is a blind purely physical force with no teleology. Though biology may include some teleological language, it usually does so in reference to "Nature's plan." It never ascribes evolutionary stratagems to individual organisms and rarely to types of organisms. Types of organisms have no plan, as the continuation of the species is not an evolutionary end of individuals nor groups - only individual genetic propagation is.

  Though Pollan devotes one paragraph of disclaimer to show he allegedly understands this, it's as if he flushes that knowledge from his mind and goes on some Mr. Toad's wild ride of fancy where he personifies the potato and friends - who knows, maybe the marijuana played a bigger role than the pages would indicate in writing his book.

  Egregious and careless misdescriptions go beyond his beyond-negligent mischaracterization of evolution. He states, "Naturally we value abilities such as consciousness" and later "while we were nailing down consciousness." What does he take "consciousness" to be? Consciousness is an ability??? If he means, by "consciousness", rationality, problem-solving, complex thinking, he should say so. But as far as "consciousness" goes, it's a phenomena that not even leading cognitive scientists can reconcile with evolution - it rather seems an unnecessary free-rider on what could be done w/o this extra "awareness." In the very least, his flimsy statements need support or much qualification. Also, a ticky-tack criticism: contrary to what he states in the introduction, wolves don't exemplify "self-reliance" but are, in fact, "interdependent" -- they are social animals who hunt in packs.

  Lastly, Pollan just free-forms his metaphor to the ridiculous. Even if we condoned his abuse of metaphor, he asserts it to psychedelic proportions. He offers that, "...intoxication is a human desire we might never have cultivated had it not been for a handful of plants that manage to manufacture chemicals with the precise molecular key needed to unlock the mechanisms in our brain governing pleasure, memory, and maybe even transcendence." Transcendence? Eh? He later describes plants with the "astounding power to alter consciousness - even to plant dreams in the brains of awake humans." What? Do these plants devise dreams and then shove them in the subconscious of humans?

  This is far too much teleological, fantastical, poetic [junk]. By trying to make human beings the object, and plants the subject, Pollan has ended up making ridiculous assertions and descriptions. But it goes beyond silliness; with being a scientist of any type comes responsibility not to let your excitement twist the facts into some intriguing poem that calls a rose by any other name besides a rose.

  But other than being severely scientifically misleading, it's a readable book w/ some interesting facts and explanations.
  
  

• A treat to read
  By A3QVI57VT1VGRO on 2002-09-03
  The central idea of this book - the idea that plants obtain a Darwinian benefit from appealing to the desires of humans - underlies four essays each on a single plant (apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes). Frequently this thesis was buried underneath another of Pollan's interesting ideas (for example the futility of man's manipulation of the natural environment, or what makes the apple peculiarly "American").

  But to be honest I did not mind. Pollan is a completely entertaining writer. He is equal parts funny, insightful, poetic, and informative. For example, I loved his extended metaphor of the variability of nature as a library. Each apple tree looks about the same, but inside they are quite different. The value of the library lies in these differences.

  The reasons I gave this book a "4" rather than a "5" may be minor from your perspective, depending on your own reading habits: The Tulip essay was well done but not news if you have read other books or articles on Holland's tulip mania. The Marijuana essay seemed to me a bit, um, disjointed and paranoid (hmmmm...wonder why?) although still entertaining. You may have already read the Apple essay in Harpers and/or the potato essay in the NYT Sunday Magazine. If you have not, however, they are both must reads (you will never eat a non-organic potato again when Pollan gets done with you).

  Pollan's book itself illustrates the generative power of variability - he floats from idea to idea like a bee, and something new is created as a result.
  
  

• An engaging piece of practical history
  By A15J07RXB3W0YX on 2006-09-24
  
  
  Michael Pollan's charaming and erudite book is the story of the development of the culture of four different plants: the apple, potato, tulip and marijuana. `Culture' is to be understood in two different ways. First there's the effect of the plants in question on human cultures and second the demands the plants place on people for their culture or care.
  
  Don't be distracted by Pollan's provocative hypothesis. We and our favorite plants have `co-evolved'. That is, they have used us as much as we have used them. The apple has snared us with its sweetness and so has manipulated us into spreading it throughout the world. The same could be said for the beauty of the tulip, the reliability and simplicity of the potato and the magic power of marijuana. Sure. Let's remember that we're the ones with the consciousness here and file that co-evolution business away in the metaphor drawer and get on with Pollan's main business.
  
  The business in question is an examination of where our stewardship of plants' destinies is leading us. The genetically-altered potato is his best case. The frightening possibility is that a potato that uses a `natural' gene to fight off pests runs the risk of fostering resistant strains of the pest. Once that happens, an entire natural defense against pests disappears. Unfortunately, the losers in the process are not just the farmers who used the genetically-altered crop but everyone whose crop is endangered by the new resistant pest.
  
  So this should make it a snap decision: genetically-modified, bug-resistant potatoes are bad. But then Pollan tells us about the dreadful diet of chemicals that are used now to fight pests. The recital of the potatoes' dosages would be enough to turn anyone off to french fries forever.
  
  Notice that this is no longer a matter of co-evolution. This is a question of human direction of evolution (the potato seems to have no opinion on the matter). The outcomes are not trivial-genetic alterations remain in the environment and reproduce themselves in a way that chemical spills, for instance, do not.
  
  In fact, it's possible that the matter may already be out of our hands. The chemically nurtured potato exists because big food-processing companies demand it. They demand those potatoes because McDonald's (for one) demands it. And the big junk-food chains demand it because we do.
  
  So in the end, there are three partners in the evolutionary rowboat. There are the plants, there's us and there's this new `organism' called the industrial food business. Pollan's thoughtful book leaves me wondering if all three of us make it .
  
  
  Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and bang-BANG, the forthcoming novel of sex and gunplay from kunati press.
  
  
• A BOTANICAL EPIPHANY
  By AKSKU62KRX8X2 on 2001-06-16
  I am a teacher of Horticulture and Seller of Botanical Prints (shigitatsu.com). Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire is a revelation taking Darwin's theory on step further. After reading this thought-provoking book, I will not only stop to smell the roses, but look at them with renewed insight. Ten pages of sources are also included. The principal works referred to in the text, as well as others that supplied the author with facts, which influenced his thinking, are referenced.
  
  
• Too Little Genuine Research & Many Convoluted Conclusions!
  By A3CYDHL8RCOK6K on 2004-01-31
  This book is a prime example of a little knowledge ending up misleading the author and anyone who reads his writings. Michael Pollan intent was just to challenge the traditional views about humans and nature and thus came to the conclusion he wanted not what is actually true about American agricultural.

  For example, Mr. Pollan is correct to say our agricultural and energy resources are closely connected, that is true but he did not go further in understanding why nor finding out why too. The fact is our oil industry actually created valuable products from the by-products after creating gasoline, kerosene and motor oil.

  He did not research that the artificial fertilizers called "Urea" is really a creation from the nitrogen gases from the refinery process. The result was truly healthy new uses of urea to treat poor soils to enhance yields and growth of plants to feed more people too.

  Mr. Pollan never checks how or why this by-product developed. It is a way to use a by-product of another product that normally would become waste. Instead, he wrongly concludes we are using oil resources for agricultural purposes. When they actually were, just by-products discovered after the refining process that put our oil resource by-products to even better uses, as if enhancing food yields with natural nitrogen found in the hydrocarbons of oil.

  All Oil Refineries send the by-products of oil like Nitrogen and CO2 to chemical plants to make ammonia and urea that actually enhance soils to grow plants to feed the world. India and China are now the greatest importers and without Urea could not overcome the obstacles to feed their once starving nations. Yet, the author never knew this as seen in his book.

  On the other hand, Mr. Pollan is right about American Agriculture purpose was to feed our population with many high carbohydrates such as corn, fruits, peas and grains. They fill you up but when taken in great quantities can cause many people diabetes especially from by-products like fructose from corn that replace sugar in soft drinks.

  However, it is up to the person to watch what they intake in quantities and up to our agriculture to provide the supply to meet demand. Of course, too much bread, potatoes and corn will turn into instant sugar and why you must watch how much you do eat of them.

  The fact is the elite and royalty always were able to afford high protein products like meat, poultry and fish. The average common man in earlier times could not so they created peasant food that is a mixture of carbs & starches like bread, pasta, gravy, mixed with small slices of meat.

  In spite of that, Mr. Pollan concludes wrongly that our Agricultural cannot sustain itself and is misusing its resources when it is feeding the world far better than ever. What we need is more education on the subject but mixing some facts with wrong bias conclusions based on ignorance in this book is not the way to do it either.
  
  The other misnomer is that American Farmers especially Diary Farmer know that Cows cannot provide good milk if they are not content and happy and when treated poorly actually produce milk that cannot be used.

  Thus, once again Mr. Pollan is in error that Farmers mistreat their Cows when they eventually end up providing healthy beef too. Therefore, Farmers treat their cows with care and concern because if not they lose income from their hard work. Mr. Pollan just assumes the opposite that money is more important than the cows when actually there is no money in treating cows poorly or with chemicals that hurts them and us.

  The bottom line, when journalists does not do the proper research and ends up mixing some of the truth without checking out all the facts, you end up with a book of untrustworthy information making me doubt his entire book.

  I have read many books in my life, but this is one that I cannot recommend because of lazy research leading to wrong convoluted conclusions by the author who has let in his own personal bias prevail over objective facts out there for anyone to fairly research properly.
  
  

• botany of desire
  By A1KWZCC8UIAQOK on 2004-07-21
  the thesis for this book sets up a very enlightening premise - that plants are controlling us to meet their needs in the same manner we use them to satisfy ours. the author illustrates this best with the analogy of the bee pollenating the flower. both the bee and the flower think they are controlling the other, when from a distance it is clear that they are locked in a mutually-beneficial relationship in which one depends on the other for survival. the author pledges to tell an amazing story from a novel perspective - that of the plant.
  
  the four references he gives to back up his thesis are interesting in title, but never go nearly as deep as i hoped they would. they each end up as extended anecdotes about their subjects. almost like a collection of unrelated essays that the author has tried to tie together for the purpose of releasing a book (the intro to this book led me to believe this is true).
  
  in the end, it is a pleasurable read in which you'll learn several interesting bits of trivia about apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes, but nothing revolutionary or mind-expanding as the jacket suggests.
  
  

• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
• The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
• Second Nature: A Gardener's Education
• A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder
• Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind