The Botany of Desire

[guppiecat]

Whilst at minnehaha's dinner last week, I made an off-hand comment that I was reading a book that was one-fourth about apple cider. I finally got a chance to finish it recently.



Botany of Desire was recommended to me last summer. It covers the stories of four plants: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. Interestingly, it reads similarly to The Beak of the Finch in that it discusses the nature of evolution. However, unlike the finches, the focus of this book is on how communion with humans, rather than isolation, has driven the evolution of these plants. While there are many items of interest in this book, I will primarily focus on what I did not know prior to reading it.

Apples
The story of the apple starts with John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed. What I didn't know here was that the apple was spread throughout the new world as a source of alcohol rather than food. It makes perfect historical sense, but I had never given it much thought. The "apple cider" and "applejack" about which I had previously read without consideration was a form of moonshine that was extremely potent and must have gone a long way towards making frontier life more bearable. The fact that apples spread the taste of "sweetness" was also something that I had not previously appreciated. Before the European honey bees swarmed the US, and before cane and beet sugar were available, most people would seldom get to taste that flavor, so it was to be savored.

Another thing that I didn't know about apples was that they don't breed true. Like most kids, I tried planting apple trees from seed, but I never stayed interested in the project for the 4-6 years it would take to actually get apples from the resulting progeny. If I had, I would have found out that each seed has randomized genetics, and therefore makes entirely different types of apples. (I now imagine each apple to be like Doctor Who, playing genetic Russian roulette with each seed.) So, all the apples we eat are cloned.

Tulips
The tulip story wasn't quite so interesting, because I was already aware of the tulip boom and associated economic disaster. What was interesting was the "college" system of bidding on tulips. Apparently, if you wanted to "invest" in tulip futures, you first went to the bar. (That would have been a huge warning for me but hey, I'm not Dutch, what do I know?) Once there, the seller and bidder would each write down a price, and hand the slates to a pair of trusted proxies. The proxies would then dicker over the price and return something that they thought was fair. If they both agreed, the deal went through and both parties paid a fee for doing business. If they both disagreed, the deal was canceled. If only one disagreed, he had to pay a fine. . . The fees and fines then went to buying drinks for everyone at the bar.

Yeah. Day trading looks like a reputable career in comparison.

Marijuana
The marijuana story was fascinating for someone who only ever thought of the plant as "ditch weed". Apparently, since it was criminalized, the "gardeners" have been tinkering with the genetics trying to balance the best of the different plants, maximizing the THC and minimizing the other toxic chemicals. The descriptions of modern grow rooms were astonishing, describing the millions of dollars in technology needed to grow these hybrids, the billions that they're worth and frighteningly, how growers get just as habituated to the cash flow and genetic improvement process as the buyers do to the product.

Another interesting side observation that Michael Pollan made was that the incidents of shamans/visionaries have gone down as global nutrition levels have gone up. Not sure if I buy the link, but it was interesting to consider.

Potato(e)s
The potato section was mostly about direct genetic manipulation by the Monsanto corporation. It's supposed to be a story about control, but actually reads like a story about blind hope and arrogance. It gets into a natural insecticide known as Bt that Monsanto merged into potato(e)s. While this has been around for millennia, it has never existed in sufficient concentration to promote evolutionary resistance until now. The nightmare scenario is that of breeding super-insects that are not only immune to our existing insecticides, but also immune to the natural ones -- resulting in a population explosion of pest-insects that utterly destroys the global food supply. Monsanto's answer is basically "we'll deal with that when it happens".

I can follow the logic, but have my doubts that it would get quite so bad. Again though, it's interesting to think about.

The other item of interest from this section was about "net necrosis" in Russet Burbanks. When I was young, I remember getting the occasional french fry that had a dark spot. This was caused by net necrosis -- a harmless spotting of the potato. The large fast food companies believe (probably correctly) that their customers do not like spotty fries, so they will refuse an entire batch if one potato shows this condition. So, to prevent this from happening, the commercial potato producers spray the entire field with nerve toxin, and keep all of their people out of the fields for up to five days to keep them from being killed.

Then they sell the potato(e)s to us to eat.

I already had potato(e)s on my "organic-only" list for pesticide reasons. After reading this book, they're going to stay there.

Generally
Really, most of the book was a fascinating read, but the only bit that probably changed my life is the net necrosis stuff. That said, it's a well written book and the author's voice rings through so it's more than a selection of facts. If you like plants, it's worth reading. If you don't like plants, but enjoy thinking, read it... you might start liking plants.

Of course, if you are botanophobic, you should avoid it (and I commend you for reading this far without fleeing in terror). (As a side note, Botanophobia, or "fear of plants" is a real condition, and can be cured by questionable web sites.)

Comments

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I liked the Pollan, too. :)

[thickie.livejournal.com]

and i thank those that grow "ditch" weed on a daily basis.

i FULLY support farming.