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A review by jay_sy
The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan is the first book I've read from him and it is about the relationship of plants and humans, and how certain plants have appeal to human desires so much that it enabled them to spread, specifically focusing on the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato.
Thoughts while reading:
-not being American, I didn't really know much about the story of Johnny Appleseed other than the broad overview of him going across America and planting apples so I had no idea how eccentric he was. It's also a little amusing that vegetarianism is often associated with being a modern trend yet Johnny Appleseed was a vegetarian and hated to even hurt animals to the point of punishing his foot when he accidentally stepped on a worm
-I didn't know that grafting plants was discovered by the Chinese
-it's interesting that what Johnny Appleseed had done was somewhat akin to real estate speculation, since he was appealing to homesteaders who by law had to plant at least 50 fruit trees to prove that they were working the land. But during John Chapman's day, apple trees were associated far more with alcohol in the form of cider than with edible fruit
-I was aware of that only growing select varieties of fruit, like the limited selection of apples, was hampering genetic diversity and increasing vulnerability to diseases, but I had never considered that encouraging the growth of wild apples could help people find the genes to protect the fruits we have
-I didn't know that bees were considered to be color blind with leaves appearing gray and red flowers appearing black, although they can see ultraviolet
-It was really interesting to hear the history of the tulip craze in Holland. It’s funny how so many major events begin with a theft, and how the tulips qualities (such as how the seeds can spring up in astonishing varieties) caused it to become so popular. I liked hearing about the Semper August, or the tulip with dagger like leaves or feathery frills.
-I hadn't realized that the cannabis plant had been developed with two Divergent paths, with the hemp plant being used primarily for fiber and the cannabis plant for its medicinal compounds. For some reason, I thought they were fairly interchangeable but apparently not!
-I really liked the story about the Assassin sect, where the ruler wanted to create powerful warriors so he made them consume a great deal of hashish and set up a scene with beautiful women and fake decapitated heads with the bodies hidden by straw, to convince his followers that this was the afterlife. As a result, they wouldn't be afraid of death
-I was fascinated to learn about how the potato was introduced to Europe and how the people living there received it. I didn't know that there was speculation that the potato arrived in Ireland due to a Spanish shipwreck, and how the potato changed the balance of power because instead of relying on wheat
which grew in warmer climates, the potato, which required very little by way of intensive farming or preparation, could grow in colder climates. Also, it was funny that Catherine the Great had to force the peasants to adopt the potato, while King Louis of France created a plot of potatoes that was guarded, with the guards going to sleep at midnight, to encourage peasants to think that the potato was worth stealing
-it was really interesting to learn about the process of how plants are genetically modified, and how much of it is a shot in the dark with so many unforeseen results
-the description of the clean fields in Idaho, sprayed with a multitude of chemicals so that the soil look like a gray powder in which to grow potatoes, was horrifying.
I found Pollan to be a very entertaining and engaging writer, weaving together personal anecdotes with history and science, so I enjoyed this book. Overall, I would give it a 4 out of 5
Thoughts while reading:
-not being American, I didn't really know much about the story of Johnny Appleseed other than the broad overview of him going across America and planting apples so I had no idea how eccentric he was. It's also a little amusing that vegetarianism is often associated with being a modern trend yet Johnny Appleseed was a vegetarian and hated to even hurt animals to the point of punishing his foot when he accidentally stepped on a worm
-I didn't know that grafting plants was discovered by the Chinese
-it's interesting that what Johnny Appleseed had done was somewhat akin to real estate speculation, since he was appealing to homesteaders who by law had to plant at least 50 fruit trees to prove that they were working the land. But during John Chapman's day, apple trees were associated far more with alcohol in the form of cider than with edible fruit
-I was aware of that only growing select varieties of fruit, like the limited selection of apples, was hampering genetic diversity and increasing vulnerability to diseases, but I had never considered that encouraging the growth of wild apples could help people find the genes to protect the fruits we have
-I didn't know that bees were considered to be color blind with leaves appearing gray and red flowers appearing black, although they can see ultraviolet
-It was really interesting to hear the history of the tulip craze in Holland. It’s funny how so many major events begin with a theft, and how the tulips qualities (such as how the seeds can spring up in astonishing varieties) caused it to become so popular. I liked hearing about the Semper August, or the tulip with dagger like leaves or feathery frills.
-I hadn't realized that the cannabis plant had been developed with two Divergent paths, with the hemp plant being used primarily for fiber and the cannabis plant for its medicinal compounds. For some reason, I thought they were fairly interchangeable but apparently not!
-I really liked the story about the Assassin sect, where the ruler wanted to create powerful warriors so he made them consume a great deal of hashish and set up a scene with beautiful women and fake decapitated heads with the bodies hidden by straw, to convince his followers that this was the afterlife. As a result, they wouldn't be afraid of death
-I was fascinated to learn about how the potato was introduced to Europe and how the people living there received it. I didn't know that there was speculation that the potato arrived in Ireland due to a Spanish shipwreck, and how the potato changed the balance of power because instead of relying on wheat
which grew in warmer climates, the potato, which required very little by way of intensive farming or preparation, could grow in colder climates. Also, it was funny that Catherine the Great had to force the peasants to adopt the potato, while King Louis of France created a plot of potatoes that was guarded, with the guards going to sleep at midnight, to encourage peasants to think that the potato was worth stealing
-it was really interesting to learn about the process of how plants are genetically modified, and how much of it is a shot in the dark with so many unforeseen results
-the description of the clean fields in Idaho, sprayed with a multitude of chemicals so that the soil look like a gray powder in which to grow potatoes, was horrifying.
I found Pollan to be a very entertaining and engaging writer, weaving together personal anecdotes with history and science, so I enjoyed this book. Overall, I would give it a 4 out of 5