Summary Of Botany Of Desire By Michael Pollan

In the ‘Botany of Desire”, the author Michael Pollan introduced us a new perspective of relationship between human and plants. Especially in the potato chapter, Pollan focuses on interaction between human and potatoes in historical and modern perspectives, and points out human’s desire to control the earth. Pollan introduces the ideas of polyculture and monoculture to readers, and then he references to historical events for both ideas. He also focuses on the modern approach to potatoes agriculture, which includes GMO, traditional, and organic farming. The most striking strategy is Pollan’s comparison of the agricultural methods on planting potatoes throughout history. By making this comparison Pollan intends to force us to see how monoculture

And the cultivation in Andes was successful. The Incas worked with nature to cultivate potatoes for varies climate. They let cultivated potatoes mix with wild potatoes and selected potatoes that prove their values. It ends up with thousands of varieties in potatoes. These potatoes vary in colors, texture, sizes, shapes, and tastes, etc. These varieties of Andean potatoes show the Incas’ desire for biodiversity. By letting these potatoes mix together, the Incas were letting the plants adjust to nature because they know nature is the ultimate player in the game of cultivation. This good outcome of Incas agriculture with polyculture had shown the important of understanding who the real controller in cultivation. Then the cultivation is sustainable and can last for a long

They first saved the Irish from a famine, so people in Ireland thought of a way to depend on one type of potatoes and sustain their lives. This monoculture practice put the Irish in a vulnerable position, as Pollan refers to Gallagher’s words, “wipe out the progress an advanced economy has made in liberating humankind from dependence on shifty nature.” (Page 205) Potatoes helped the Irish population to grow rapidly, it enlarge the labor pool. However, dependence on potatoes stops fundamental economic activities in Ireland, so there’s very limited jobs available, and the Irish were stuck with heavily depending on nature. And nature called an end to it by putting these potatoes in blight. The potato blight happened trough out the whole Europe, but it has the most catastrophic outcome in Ireland which caused the deaths of one million Irish people. That’s because of their monoculture cultivation of potatoes. They wholly depended on potatoes and now the only thing that depend on had been destroyed. The stable life monoculture creates was just bubbles that built up, which looked nice and seemed to have good structure but can easily collapse in no time. This terrible outcome of Irish’s monoculture practice reminds us that depending on monoculture is unreliable. Other European countries is the opposite paradigm