The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World is a 2001 nonfiction book by journalist Michael Pollan.
Pollan presents case studies mirroring four types of human desires that are reflected in the way that we selectively grow, breed, and genetically engineer plants..
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..
Pollan examines how four cultivated plants satisfy four human desires — apples, which provide humans with sweetness; tulips, grown for beauty; marijuana, farmed for intoxication; and potatoes, which humans use to exercise control.
Each plant is given its own dedicated chapter..
1-Sentence-Summary: The Botany Of Desire describes how, contrary to popular belief, we might not be using plants as much as plants use us, by getting humans to ensure their survival, thanks to appealing to our desires for beauty, sweetness, intoxication and control.Sep 24, 2016.
“The Omnivore's Dilemma,” published in 2007, is subtitled: “A Natural History of Four Meals.” The number “four” is also operative in “The Botany of Desire,” which was published in 2002.
It is the story of four plants: apples, tulips, cannabis and potatoes..
