Summary (from Amazon):
"Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?"
Reviews:
New York Times, "For the Love of Potatoes":
The Guardian: "Power to the Potato":
Author's Site: http://michaelpollan.com/interviews/botany-of-desire/
Interviews:
* NPR: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1126607, (Part 2) https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?; storyId=1123916; https://www.npr.org/programs/talkingplants/radio/010604.pollan.html
The Movie by PBS: http://www.pbs.org/thebotanyofdesire/
Study guides:
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Discussion Questions: (Donna wrote these questions and will be leading the discussion.)
1. Does this book about domesticated species fit into our nature lover’s book selections, or not?
2. What are a few examples of coevolution right here in our neck of the woods, meadows, or backyards? Or in other books we have read together like “Beak of the Finch” , “Forest Unseen”, etc.?
3. What do you think about Pollan’s premise that we humans are part of the coevolutionary process? Scientists and farmers have been artificial selectors for hundreds of years, what is the difference between artificial selection and coevolution..? or is there one? What did Darwin argue?
4. On page xxiii of the introduction Pollan writes “Indeed, even the wild now depends on civilization for survival.” Let’s talk about how this fits some of our previous discussions.
5. What was your favorite and/or least favorite chapter? Why?
6. Let’s talk about the storied 10,000 year history of Cannabis and the discovery of cannabinoid receptors in the human brain? How is marijuana different/similar to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs? Should it be legal?
7. What are some other plants, foods, animals Pollan (or other authors) could use to illustrate his thesis?
8. In your opinion, are GMOs a net plus or minus for our U.S. food system? What about malnourished countries? Is spraying chemical insecticides different than putting natural insecticides directly into a plants’ genes? Why or why not?
9. Talk about biodiversity versus monocultures on our farms, on our dinner plates, in lumber tracts, etc.
10. Do we control plants or do they control us? On page 187, “Everything affecting everything else” is not a bad description of what happens in a garden, or any ecosystem.
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