The Botany of Desire

In his national bestseller, The Botany of Desire, journalist Michael Pollan ingeniously illuminates the ever-changing and perplexing relationship between human beings and the domesticated plant. More specifically, he unmasks the four driving desires of human existence - sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control - while simultaneously exploring the effects that they have on our lives today. In The Botany of Desire, Pollan utilizes his own personal experiences, witty anecdotes, informational passages of history, and surprising statistics to captivate the reader’s attention while also leaving them to flounder in a state of questioning as he unearths the motives behind human existence. First Desire - Sweetness: In this first chapter, Michael…

The PBS documentary film, “The Botany of Desire” were based on the book by Michael Pollan, it was design to enhance viewers to have better connection between plants and the world. The movie discuss the relationship of four plants and associated with human desires for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control over plants ; showing that humans do not stand outside the food web but are much a part of it. The four plants were the apple, tulip, marijuana, and the potato. Each association with…

In The Botany of Desire; A Plant’s Eye View of the World, Michael Pollan explores the co-evolutionary relationship between humans and plants. In four chapters, he discusses the four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—through the plants that satisfy these desires: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. More specifically, in the Potato chapter, Pollan discusses the associated human desire for control that links us with the potato. Pollan interjects a…

In the book, The Botany of Desire, the author Michael Pollan describes the relationship between human and potatoes. After discussing the history of potatoes and the famine in Ireland, he relatively focused on the genetic engineering of the potatoes. The famous seed industry, Monsanto, have change the genes of potatoes by adding some genes of Bacillus Turingiensis(Bt) into the potato to make anti-biotic potatoes. One interesting thing is that Monsanto has the patent of new plants, and if farmers…

A few of the reasons why I changed my opinion on monocultures was the Botany of Desire documentary and its look at apples and the articles on the recent outbreak of Panama disease in bananas. These resources really ended up changing my mind on how I view food in my everyday life. A common fruit I find almost everyday is the apple. In the documentary Botany of Desire, author Michael Pollan talks about the evolution of the apple in America. He outlines its growth in early America from Johnny…

Most of us never think about the food we eat. How is it made? Where does it come from? What exactly is in it? Is it safe to eat? Sometimes the best answer to those questions is no answer at all. Some of us may not even care, some will. It’s all about the perspective of the person. No answer is wrong. In the book The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan writes about a potato called the NewLeaf. The NewLeaf potato isn’t like any other kind of ordinary potato. It’s a genetically engineered potato that…

At its core, The Botany of Desire is a story of that encompasses the entirety of human’s cultural interaction with plants and agriculture. Throughout his writing and especially early on, Pollan often uses the word ‘coevolution’ in response to the human interaction with certain staple plants that have a long detailed history with humans. This ‘coevolution’ idea roughly refers to the idea that the evolution of human culture is deeply tied the evolution of our interactions with plants, and at a…

The Botany of Desire intends to show that we humans don't stand outside the web of nature; we people are very much a part of it. The botany of desire defines how, contrary to common acceptance, we do not use plants, just as plants use us, which provoked humans to ensure their survival, appealing to our desires for beauty, sweetness, intoxication, and control. Flowers. Trees. Plants. We've always thought that we controlled them. But actually, they have been shaping us and controlling…

pattern regarding a journey merged into the search for knowledge. Cavafy echoes this sentiment in his poem Ithaka which communicates that you will be “rich with all [the knowledge and experiences] you have gained” after arriving at your destination. Like the promises made in the poem, Alexander von Humboldt longed to adventure in pursuit of knowledge. As Humboldt outgrew adolescence, his passion for botany pushed him to travel to Latin America. The struggles he faced during the journey molded…

The book “Harvest for Hope”, written by Jane Goodall, outlines and inspires the audience to eat mindfully and healthily. The author explains how a great portion of our nutrient intake is unknowingly mixed with toxins, and made in miserable conditions. Dr. Goodall explains this successfully by analyzing the typical practices of industrial agriculture, which then leads her on to examine the repercussions of these techniques, pressing the point that we are fatally detached from nature and it’s…