In Michael Pollan's chapter of Botany of Desire, he talks about genetic modification; injecting genome into the DNA of other crops with the sole purpose to change their characteristics. Pollan genetically modifies a potato and is named the “NewLeaf”. Pollan’s research question is about creating a New Leaf Potato by injecting a bacterium called Baclilus Thuringiensis (bt) in the potatoes DNA. By doing this, it allows the potato to defend itself from their biggest threat, which is the Colorado beetle
Sarah Smith Professor Harrison ESRM 100 15 May 2017 The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World Throughout The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, the author argues that the coevolution of plants and humans is seen within the relationship of humans manipulating plants to fulfill their desires. Pollan touches on four main examples where coevolution can be easily seen throughout history and the present. The apple satisfies sweetness, the tulip beauty, marijuana intoxication, and the potato
in controlling us. He is what the plants know about our desires that made them grow, survive and spread around the world until today. Each has some qualities that know to stimulate human sense. The apples is a fruit that appeals to a human’s yearning for sweetness, the tulip is a flower that appeals to a human’s yearning for beauty, marijuana is a weed that appeals to a human’s desire for intoxication and the potato appeals to a human’s desire for control. As time goes by, in order to survive, plants
Analysis of The Botany of Desire Michael Pollan’s book The Botany of Desire delves deep into the issues of nature’s interaction with genetically modified potatoes, but also focuses on all of genetic engineering in relation to natural organisms. Pollan outsets his chapter with his background of his own position, that he is a gardener. (However, this fact does not make him a true authority over the examination of genetic engineering.) He further develops his chapter through the cross examination
In the book The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan in chapter 4 he talks in depth about the potato and a type of GMO that Monsanto's has come out with. He makes a hypothesis about the GMO variety and goes in great length to figure out the answer to his question. He also contrast the GMO variety with other plants he talks about in his book and how the changing of genes isn't really helping use as a society. He then talks about monocultures and makes some points on how it is good and how it is bad
Studies are finding that the excessive consumption of sweeteners, meats, and dairy products are many of the leading causes of American’s health failure. Michael Pollan, a writer for New York Times and author of New York Times bestseller The Botany of Desire and named best book of the year by Borders, Amazon, and the American Booksellers Association, discusses some of these harmful effects along with many other facts in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Pollan discusses how corn syrup has consumed
Beauty can be defined in many ways. Though, regardless of its definition, beauty is confined by four characteristics: symmetry, health, vibrancy and complexity. Michael Pollan, in the book The Botany of Desire, examines our role in nature. Pollan sets out to discovery why the most beautiful flowers have manipulated animals into propagating its genes. Most people believe that humans are the sole domesticators of nature, although, beauty in some sense has domesticated us by making us select what we
garden has their own purposes that make gardeners devote a great amount of time to take care of them. Gardeners are coming up with their own unique ways of taking care of their gardens, especially when they make profits out of it. In his book, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan claims the best gardeners of his generation have devoted themselves to growing cannabis, popularly known as marijuana. Intrigued with Pollan’s argument, I completely agree with him. Marijuana growers are the best gardeners because
Review: The Botany of Desire Michael Pollan’s book reveals the story between the relationship of Man vs Nature, and the connection it has with life on Earth. He mentions his objective for his book: to view plants in an intimate relationship with humans by looking at ourselves differently. The book creates an adventure through history to forms of life now, and examines plants through multiple points of views. The Botany of Desire demonstrates a unique comparison of the terms “Botany” and “Desire” through
In Michael Pollen’s The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, there are consistent contrasts between the world today and the world of Ancient Greece. His comparison between the disorder of Dionysus and the order of Apollo in nature emphasizes the importance of plants’ ability to satisfy human desire as well as the reciprocal. It is not a singular organism that influences one or the other; plants influence animals as we influence them. However, through our desire for sweetness, beauty,
of Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, studied the effect the human race had on certain plants and their well-being. One of his several written works, The Botany of Desire is about these particular studies. Pollan talks about four traits individuals desire in life, which are sweetness, beauty, control, and intoxication. He finds that humans have manipulated many crops to acquire these attributes, but four profound examples were attaining sweetness from
In “The Botany of Desire” by Michael Pollan, the author argues that instead of humans interacting, controlling, and paving the way for plants, they in fact work in ways for our lives to better themselves, and help us to become the human’s we are. They instill desires in our life: beauty, control, sweetness, and intoxication. Each plant mentioned in the four-part book, apples (Malus Domestica), tulips (Tulipa), marijuana (Cannabis Sativa x Inidica), and potatoes (Solanum Tuberosum) contribute to a
Psychoanalysis of Brave New World The book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley focuses on a society based on the ideals of Henry Ford, but also, the conditioning brought on by psychology. Psychology is the study of the brain and its functions, especially when it is associated with behavior. This society uses psychological conditioning and their studies of the mind to control their people. With this control they gain a hold upon the society’s mindset of what their psychological behavior should be. One
The Desire for Intoxication Leads to Destruction Through time, people all over the world have looked for ways to feel intoxicated and alter their consciousness for different reasons. One of the most ancient ways people have reached this state of intoxication has been through the popular marijuana plant. Today this plant has become so widely accepted that it has been legalized in a few states and will most likely be legalized in other states, such as California and Maine, even though it is prohibited
Most movies can be grouped with other similar movies. These groupings are what we know today to be genres. One of the major genres of film would be science fiction. However, science fictions movies tend to have such a wide variety of convention. For example, there are the classic space expedition films or the humans versus robots films, and even post-apocalyptic films to name a few sub-genres. Among these many conventions, the one overlapping convention would be the implementation of advanced or
presented new values that would assist in numerous advancements. The Middle Ages were a dark time; society lacked creativity and was too fearful to think outside the box. However, society managed to shift their views and values by demanding change and the desire to know more about the world they lived in. The Renaissance was ultimately a breeding ground for new types of creators and thinkers. It emphasized abstract personalities, uniqueness, genius, and the need to reach one’s full capacity to fully utilize
delectable and necessary pastime of a man who has dedicated himself to idleness.” (83) Rousseau yearned for the freedom he received through idleness, he did not end up spending his life in that way and found liberation in other ways. The reason Rousseau desires self-containment is because he feels that “everything is in constant flux on this earth” (88) and he feels there is no way anyone could be happy without
personal life. His view regarding the desire that the potato satisfies is compared with the idea of the sublime. Pollan states that the sublime is “mostly a kind of vacation in both a literal and moral sense” (184) and that nature itself is a counter to that. Agriculture can be described as a method of control of nature (in this case, particularly with genetics). Thus the potato (and its representative, the NewLeaf) are introduced as the manifestation of our desire to control. Pollan states that his
to Aristotle's sister) became Aristotle's guardian after his father died. At 17, Aristotle joined the academy of Plato in Athens and stayed there as Plato's pupil and colleague for almost 20 years. In 348 BC, Aristotle left Athens and studied the botany and zoology of the island of Lesbos. As well as this, Aristotle married Pythias and they had a child (also named Pythias). After Pythias' mother's death, Aristotle was invited to tutor the son of Phillip II of Macedon, Alexander in 343 BC. The Corpus
George Washington Carver was born into slavery January of 1860 on the Moses Carver plantation in Diamond Grove, Missouri. He spent the first year of his life, the brutal days of border war, between Missouri and neighboring Kansas. George was a very sickly child with a whooping cough, which later lead to his speech impediment, and he was tiny and puny. George's father, James Carver, died in a wood hauling accident when he was bringing wood to his master's house one day. George was sick a great deal