The Botany of Desire

Michael Pollan's book is based on one very simple, elegant and initially unsettling idea: instead of thinking of human beings as subjects, who act on the natural world to make it respond to our wishes, we should think of the natural world as acting equally on us. In the same way that flowers and bees have a mutually advantageous arrangement, so do humans and the plants we cultivate: we may think that we have chosen to farm potatoes but they have also chosen us as a way of propagating themselves. It sounds fey, but it's not - Pollan isn't talking about conscious intent but evolutionary strategies. He develops his argument through four examples: the apple, the tulip, the marijuana plant and the potato. The key to each is the desire human beings have for a particular quality - sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control. Pollan is never less than engrossing as he traces the history of our relationship with each species. All have been domesticated by humans, but all have also flourished as a result of our desire for them. Arguably, the book isn't really about botany at all - Pollan's remit allows him to talk about biochemistry, genetic engineering, evolution, the nature of consciousness, our historical and legal attitudes towards drugs, and much else. The chapter on marijuana is particularly compelling. Pollan shows that the US clampdown on the drug in the 1980s and 1990s forced marijuana growers to cultivate the plant indoors, under artificial light, with the unexpected consequence that the marijuana grown under those conditions flowered earlier and with a vastly increased potency. His account of how the drug mimics the brain's own chemicals that enable us to forget - and why forgetting is an important function of the brain - is startling. The chapter on the potato, unpromising as it sounds, contains probably one of the best accounts of genetic modification, its potential benefits and, more importantly, its potential hazards, that you will find. As with the rest of the book, Pollan's explanation is beautifully clear and never less than engaging. Unusually for a science book, this is a rattling good read: well-informed, intelligent and original, without ever being dry or patronizing. Quite an achievement. (Kirkus UK)