The Title of the
first chapter is sweetness plant: the apple, on Page 17 Pollan says that “back
when the experience of sweetness was so special that the word served as a
metaphor for a certain kind of perfection”. So, this chapter should really be called
perfect plant: the apple. While the
apple is truly sweet, not all its history comes from a candy shop. In this
chapter, they describe a apples of the time being used as a cider. Due to it
being used in an alcoholic beverage, the Women’s Christian Temperance declared
“war” on the apple. This is not bad for a sweet fruit to evoke such emotion.
However, this emotional attachment to fruit seems to be found all over early
America. On page 15 Chapman is quoted as saying “but that is only a device of
man, and it is wicked to cut up trees that way” in reference to grafted trees
“the correct method is to select seeds and plant them in the ground and god can
only improve the apple”. If only phones were a thing during Chapmans time, I
would give anything too be a fly on the wall listening to him converse with
Darwin and Mendel. From this chapter I have truly begun to realize the impact
of apples on the early American west, with Pollan describing them on page 45
the “the great apple rush” amazes me as he literally equates apples to gold.
Switching from the humble beginnings of the apple, we enter the twenty first century,
the age of genetic engineering, property, patents and powerhouses. In Chapter
four the topic is potatoes and Michael Pollan’s attempt to grow them. Whenever
agriculture and genetic engineering are discussed you can be assured one name
will be used, it is so synonymous with big business that its name itself brings
distrust and anger, it is of course MONSANTO. Pollan talks of his experience
buying Monsanto potatoes (TM maybe??). What stood out to me was on
page 199 where it states “Monsanto declared in a recent annual report that “current
agricultural technology is not sustainable””. However, their solution to this
is more genetic engineering, and of course they are more than happy to fill
this niche. I have no issue with GMO, however it does seem like putting a band
aid on an amputated leg. If current agricultural technology is not sustainable
why not change agricultural practices, rather than agricultural genomics. For thousands
of years we have had sustainable agriculture, however magically in the past
century we have almost completely ruined our crops, soils and environment. Why
not go back to a simple potato, one that can be grown for more than one year
without being sued.
Michael Pollan (2001). The Botany of Desire, A Plant’s-Eye View of the World. Manhattan,
New York: Random House.
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