The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

This is one of the more interesting non-fiction books I've read in a while. It sounds simple enough, but has very complex ramifications. The purpose of this book is to examine man's relationship with plants, specifically plants that humans have domesticated for our own reasons. The four plants he examines are apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatos. However, Pollan looks at this relationship in a new light. He looks at it from the point of view of what the plant gets out of it and why they would allow themselves to be domesticated. Most people tend to think that we settle on a plant and decide to make it into something we find useful. What they don't realize is that plants will only follow the course of more reproductive success. This is why humans have never successfully domesticated acorns, even though they have tried for thousands of years. The plants have to get something out of it too.

Pollan explains the true nature of apples in the first section of the book, and tells the true story of Johnny Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed. One thing that Pollan explains is that apple trees do not "come true" from their parents. Only a vanishingly small percentage of wild apples are edible, and all the edible apples that we know and love come from clones of a very small number of trees. Johnny Appleseed wasn't planting trees for eating; he was planting trees ahead of settlers so that they could make cider when they caught up to him. If you wonder what it is that apples have gotten out of their relationship with humans, consider this: all apples are descended from a few trees that grew in what is now Kazakhstan. And yet this is the world's number one fruit! Amazing.

I won't provide a synopsis of each section, save that each one gives similar eye-opening revelations about each plant that we thought we knew. Cannabis is an especially interesting case. Since I don't really keep up on the subject of drugs, it surprised me to hear that the brain already has receptors for THC (or a THC-like compound), the active ingredient in marijuana. The question is: why? Evidently it controls the responses of other brain chemicals which are necessary for our health. This is not any argument for marijuana, by the way. It mucks up the natural workings of the brain. The point is that this highlights the functioning of the brain in ways we were not aware of before, including the fact that our ability to remember is directly related to our ability to be in the now (and our degree of perception).

The last chapter, on Monsanto's New Leaf potatos is especially enlightening, and somewhat frightening. If you've taken my earlier suggestions and read Fast Food Nation and Don't Eat This Book, you know that this potato has a pesticide built into it (and is classified as a pesticide by the FDA). The ramifications of direct genetic modification of plants goes far beyond what you might suspect.

I find it hard to describe much about this book, but the premise alone should sell you on it. It's well-written and well-researched, and the topic is just plain interesting anyway. I suggest that if you're looking for some light non-fiction, you pick up this book.