Boptany Importance Of Science

In the novel, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan tells the intriguing story of how plants are domesticated from the perspective of the plant with regards to four specific plants.. The four plants he chose for discussion are the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. As he discusses the domestication of these plants, his overall focus is the desire that each of these plants have to us as humans. Pollan has written books and magazine articles among other pieces of literature that discuss the relationship between plants and humans. Throughout this informational text, Pollan tries to keep the perspective from the “plant’s-eye view of the world,” but he often slips into Pollan’s eye view of the world. As he talks about experiences that he has had with each of these plants and gives a little bit of their history, it was often hard to stay focused on the topic that he was trying to convey. However, I found that the perspectives that Pollan brings up are interesting to think about. The Botany of Desire was an interesting journal type informational novel that didn’t quite live up to my expectations of what it could have been.

“The discovery of agriculture was the first big step toward a civilized life.” (Arthur Keith)

Since the beginning of human development humans have been revolving around agriculture. It is known that, “Archaeologists and palaeontologists have traced the origins of farming to around 10,000 years ago” (Mason). This is truly remarkable to believe that the revolution as a whole may pivot on this period so long ago. Once this happened agriculture began popping up all around the ancient world spreading like wildfire. This planting of crops and domestication of animals allowed people to develop specialization because not everyone had to forage anymore. This allowed

The first people to start specializing their plants into actual agricultural crops were still working with mostly wild plants. Over time, they used experimentation to figure out how to make better crops. Controlling

who recognized that plants could be easily domesticated. It was because of the domestication of

was smart enough to became a theoretical chemist, his drive for plants became very evident,

Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s View of the World, addresses four major plant groups that have both changed for human needs and simultaneously changed human’s needs. While most gardeners, genetic engineers and other plant related professionals have long-believed that plants have evolved based on what we want or need to survive and in other words what we have “domesticated”, Pollan appeals to the plant’s view. Plants’ survival has been solely based on what humans desire both depending on their visual and stimulatory appeal along with their appeal to an appetite. Conversely, plants have used humans as a strategy for “getting us to move and think for them (page xx)”. Many plants have successfully maneuvered humans for

Anna Belfer Cohen and A. Nigel Gorring-Morris. 釘ecoming Farmers: the Inside Story.Current Anthropology, Vol 52, No. S4 (October, 2011): n pag. The Origin of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

science, made discoveries with regards to the life of agriculture, or just plants in general. The

The expedition was a strong incentive for furthering education in botanical science about the west because of information discovered about unknown plants and uses in

“America’s Father of Modern Horticulture,” also known as Liberty Hyde Bailey, a jack of all trades and a significantly influential botanist within the horticulture community, lives on in spirit even today (Gasser 2014). His nickname says it all, from his dedication in studying cultivated plants, to his many published volumes and papers about his findings, his research continues to make an impact on horticulture. Bailey began building his background with cultivated plants as a young child on a fruit orchard in South Haven, Michigan (Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum 2017). These early years shaped his views and desires for later dates to come, specifically regarding his college education and research that followed. Although, the vast majority of people did not find the topics within horticulture interesting or something of importance to investigate, Bailey took the world by surprise and found himself with a completely incongruous mindset.

Botany is the study of plants. A year later he took his first botanical foot journey along the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi. Two years later in 1864 at the age of 26, he traveled to Canada and stayed there for about two years. He tried to save a part of Fountain Lake farm because that was the first place his family settled down. He ended up being a major contributor to the formation of the national park

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollen uses examples of four plants including the apple ,tulip, marijuana, and the potato, to describe evolution and how mankind works to help plants reproduce. We are a slave to things of sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control. These four things are described by the different plant chapters in the book. We as people are driven to these kind of things because of the product we get, we subconsciously are working to make these plants more fit and therefore helping in their reproduction and evolution. With each plant chapter Pollen goes into depth about its contribution to the world and history behind the plant within human evolution. By using the examples he provides in the book helps demonstrate the ideas of how these plants contribute to the human body systems, evolution and ecology. To further explain these topics I chose to explore the apple, tulip and cannabis plants.

Tom Standage’s thesis deals with the ways of the evolution of agriculture. He explains how plants use to be in ancient days to from how our modern plants come to support our human needs. The author Mr. Standage have mentioned, “Much as we like to think of farming as natural, ten thousand years ago it was a new and alien development.” He wants us to know our plants are not what they seem to be now. Mr. Standage also mentions the farming rising from hunting and how this cause some problem to our health.

Without a doubt, the first virgin ideas were that in the minds of the farmers who began to experiment with plants in their natural components, as compared to today’s bio-manipulation strategies.