Key Messages
Humans And Plants: The Cultural History Of Apple, Tulip, Cannabis And Potato
In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan explores the fascinating relationship between humans and plants.
He argues that plants have evolved cunning strategies to make us serve them – they give us something we want, and in return, we help propagate their species.
To illustrate his point, he looks at a handful of popular plants – the apple, tulip, cannabis and potato – to show how each has served both human needs and its own survival.
He explains how humans first discovered the mind-altering effects of cannabis; about a time when one tulip bulb could make you wealthy; and how the war on drugs contributed to improving marijuana in many ways.
The Botany of Desire highlights how plants employ subtle tactics that make us do their bidding, despite our desire for control.
Our understanding of our relationship with nature is vastly enriched thanks to this captivating read!
Plants Use Our Basic Desires To Get Us To Serve Their Needs
Humans and plants have a mutually beneficial relationship – we get food and resources from them, while they receive our help in propagating their species.
The book “The Botany of Desire” dives deeply into this relationship, demonstrating how plants use us as a way to spread seeds and ensure the survival of their species.
For example, apples can use sweetness to entice humans to plant more trees and spread their seeds.
Even the oak tree produces acorns that squirrels bury for safekeeping and then forget about – resulting in more trees being planted!
By recognizing the various ways that plants have evolved to take advantage of our basic desires – sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control – we can better understand our relationship with plants.
Plants need us to help propagate their species just as much as humans benefit from them for sustenance, medicine, clothing, shelter, etc.
Ultimately, this symbiotic relationship between plants and humans allows each species to thrive in different ways.
John Chapman, Better Known As Johnny Appleseed, Revolutionized North America With His Business Acumen And Sweeter Apple Varieties
Johnny Appleseed brought more than just apples to the American frontier.
He wasn’t only responsible for introducing a wide variety of apples to North America, he also brought along the taste of sweet cider.
Before the introduction of European apples, Crabapples were the only type found in North America, and were barely edible.
This meant that most Americans couldn’t enjoy a sweet taste if they wanted something different from their usual diet.
In order to make these apples available throughout the growing American frontier known as the ‘Wild West’, John Chapman (better known as Johnny Appleseed) set off with a mission to collect and plant hundreds of thousands of apple seeds all over North America.
His efforts eventually resulted in 1,200 acres full of apple trees ready for settlers.
A law even existed requiring new settlers on land to plant at least 50 pear or apple trees!
Thanks to Johnny Appleseed’s genius business plan and huge success rate, his work resulted in North America now being home to a wide range of apple varieties that could produce cider which many Americans could afford.
Sweetness had finally arrived on the new frontier!
How The Pursuit Of Sweetness And Beauty Has Limited The Variety Of Apples
From the roaring selection of apples in the market centuries ago, nowadays you can only find limited varieties that make up the bulk of supermarket shelves.
This is because what we deem desirable in an apple has significantly decreased to focus solely on beauty and sweetness.
The apples still present in the Plant Genetic Resources Unit orchard might contain wild varieties from Kazakhstan where this fruit likely originated, but unfortunately none of them can be found anymore on store shelves.
In order to satisfy our desire for perfect-looking fruits with a pleasing sweet flavor, we’ve narrowed down our choices to just two: Red and Golden Delicious.
Not too long ago even those apples had little natural sweetness–so much so that Jonathan Swift proclaimed they contained “sweetness and light….the two noblest things”.
But sugar being abundantly available now has changed our appreciation for subtle sweetness flavors – as bland as they may appear when compared to sugary snacks like chips and donuts across supermarkets.
Thus said, it’s clear that today variety in apples has drastically reduced compared to centuries previous due to our preference for beauty and sweetness alone.
The Appreciation Of Flowers Is Rooted In Human Desire For Beauty And Survival Instincts
We can’t resist beautiful flowers – they catch our attention and can even ruin us.
It’s something that has been universal throughout history; the Egyptians made sure the dead had flowers with them to take on their final journey and many cultures view flowers as embodiment of beauty itself.
But this attraction to beauty has had some serious consequences too – during Holland’s 17th century Renaissance, people were so drawn to the stunning tulips that an unprecedented bubble formed, driving up prices to ludicrous heights where one single bulb of a Semper Augustus tulip was worth as muchas an expensive house in Amsterdam.
Unfortunately for them, this “tulipmania” caused immense suffering when the bubble eventually burst, leaving many unable to trade back all the money they had invested into trading tulips.
The power of beautiful flowers is incredible – it has captivated humans for centuries, leading us to make poor financial decisions or even just appreciate its simple beauty from afar.
No wonder people give and receive bouquets of roses today!
The Forbidden Fruit Of Marijuana: How Governments Unknowingly Improved The Plant And Gave Us A Deeper Understanding Of Human Consciousness
Marijuana has been known as a forbidden fruit since the Garden of Eden because it satisfying our desire to alter our state of consciousness.
People have used psychoactive plants to do this for centuries, and cannabis is no different.
It has the ability to ease mental and physical pain, create a cheerful mood, and intensify moments which can lead to creativity.
What’s more surprising is that the government’s efforts to prohibit marijuana in the 1980s actually ended up improving it.
Growers moved production indoors and started tinkering with five growth factors – nutrients, light, water, heat, and carbon dioxide levels – which eventually allowed them to increase THC levels from 2-3% all the way up to 15-20%.
So while prohibition dampened enthusiasm for marijuana over time, it also gifted us a more potent plant that satisfies those looking for an altered state of consciousness.
How Our Brain’s Endogenous Cannabinoid Network Affects Our Desire For Intoxication
The Botany of Desire reveals how research into cannabis not only teaches us much about the plant itself, but also provides insight into the human brain.
The discovery of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), or the psychoactive property of cannabis, revealed that our brains have a whole network of neurons specifically for this compound.
In 1988, pharmacologist Allyn Howlett uncovered the existence of THC sensitive neurons and further study suggested that these networks are related to pleasure-inducing chemicals in our brain such as endorphins and serotonin.
Unexpectedly, organic chemist Raphael Mechoulam found that the human brain also produces a cannabinoid similar to THC, which he named anandamide.
This chemical is thought to be responsible for relieving pain as well as short term memory loss during labour and childbirth, although exactly how it functions remains unclear.
Finally, it appears that this entire cannabinoid system exists to fulfil our craving for intoxication – which explains why we find solace in substances like cannabis.
The lesson here is clear: sometimes even plants have desires too.
The Power Of The Potato: How Desire For Control Drove Humanity To Create Sustainable Food Sources And Reach New Levels Of Technology
The potato has been a source of positive change in our lives.
It helped European countries escape famine and malnutrition during the sixteenth century, as people could now produce their own food to meet their nutritional needs.
The nations that adopted the potato saw an increase in power and strength – even resulting in a shift from southern Europe to those more Northern countries.
Our desire for control over food has become even stronger since then, with the invention of genetically modified potatoes like Monsanto’s New Leaf Potato that produces deadly toxins against the Colorado potato beetle – helping people better control their crops from pests.
With 50 million acres of US farmland dedicated to cultivating GMOs like these, it’s clear that we have an extreme desire to take control of our food.
But has this gone too far? We still don’t know the long-term effects of growing and consuming GMOs like the New Leaf Potato – many consumers distrust these products and rightfully so!
Nonetheless, humanity’s desire for control over its food is undeniable – shown clearly by its success with potatoes – both historically and presently.
Wrap Up
The Botany of Desire takes readers on an interesting and eye-opening journey that explores the nature of human desire and plants.
The author argues that our relationship with plants is not as one-way as we think; in fact, plants rely on us just as much – if not more – than we do upon them.
Plants use us to spread their genes, while we use them for our own needs, like food, beauty, and power.
The book encourages readers to look beyond appearances and recognize what might seem to be dull or useless flora as something more – they might actually know far more about our own desires than we think!
At the end of this fascinating journey, it’s clear that humans and plants have a mutually beneficial relationship where both sides get something out of it.
