Antoine Hersen (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} endymion2021) wrote,@ 2008-07-24 13:21:00 |
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"The Botany of desire" by Michael Pollan
This book is a very interesting cultural perspective on agriculture.
The main thesis is a perspective shift: from our illusion of dominance over nature, to co-evolutionary relationship.
The classical example of co-evolution is the interdependence between the bee and flower. By definition co-evolution are mutually beneficial making the question of who is dominating or taking advantage of the other meaningless.
The author explore the reason of our perspective of dominance and distance toward nature using the classical dichotomy between Dionysus and Apollo. Apollo having the upper hand in our culture thanks to Christianity successful battle against Paganism.
This story is narrated around four different desire and an associated plant
Sweetness/The Apple
This story follow the food step of John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed during Europe colonization of America.
We learn that apples are extremely heterozygous, that is an apple tree will share little resemblance to its parents. Therefore apples are very rarely sweet and fit for consumption. All the apples in a supermarket come from grafts, they are clone of each others.
So if not for their sweetness why were apple tree such a land mark of America colonization? Because it was easy to produce alcohol from them and this often was often a much more sanitary drink than water.
Even if cider was considered cultural acceptable by the puritans it still ended up as a target of the temperance movement with public calls to cut down the trees.
Apple as healthy and delicious fruit is just a relatively recent PR coup of the industry to make the fruit acceptable again.
Beauty/The Tulip
After pages on the aesthetic values of flower (factoid only African culture do not value the beauty of flower, probably because they are too busy trying to find food). The author give an account of the first speculative bubble. The mechanism of which are still very relevant today. Will we ever learn form our mistake?
Intoxication/Marijuana
Explore the motivation for the war on drugs and describe the associated loss of civil liberty.
Also speculate on the cultural and litterer influence of cannabis and other drugs as mutating agents for ideas.
Control/The potato
Examine the strong cultural and political opposition to the introduction of such a wonderful staple food in Europe illustrating again the struggle between Apollo and Dionysus.
Then the author narrate the Irish famine a perfect illustration of a Mathusaliam economic disaster. The principal cause of the famine, the monoculture of potatoes is also the greatest sin of modern agriculture.
This part of the book give account of modern agriculture practices. In particular the clean field method, where the land is regularly dosed with all kind of chemical to make sure that only the desired crop can survive.
After spreading some chemicals called "Monitor" the farmers do not go in the field for four of five days even if the sprinkler system is broken and threaten to ruin the lot. Just to prevent aesthetically unpleasant, but harmless brown spot due to aphids.
The most striking part is the account of the industrial farm, which after disregarding organic agriculture as unable to feed the world, admit that he does not eat his own potatoes and himself prefer to eat organic.
The last part is devoted to genetically modified food, its dangers and unknowns. It explain the principle of "substantial equivalence", that is mixing an approved gene or chemical with an harmless plant does not require any testing or labeling before being commercialized. No research on genetic instability. Thanks lobby, thanks congress.
You will learn this precious pearl. GMO are not considered food and therefore are not under the umbrella of the FDA, they are instead classified as pesticide and as such are regulated by the EPA ! Bonne appetit.
This book is a very interesting cultural perspective on agriculture.
The main thesis is a perspective shift: from our illusion of dominance over nature, to co-evolutionary relationship.
The classical example of co-evolution is the interdependence between the bee and flower. By definition co-evolution are mutually beneficial making the question of who is dominating or taking advantage of the other meaningless.
The author explore the reason of our perspective of dominance and distance toward nature using the classical dichotomy between Dionysus and Apollo. Apollo having the upper hand in our culture thanks to Christianity successful battle against Paganism.
This story is narrated around four different desire and an associated plant
Sweetness/The Apple
This story follow the food step of John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed during Europe colonization of America.
We learn that apples are extremely heterozygous, that is an apple tree will share little resemblance to its parents. Therefore apples are very rarely sweet and fit for consumption. All the apples in a supermarket come from grafts, they are clone of each others.
So if not for their sweetness why were apple tree such a land mark of America colonization? Because it was easy to produce alcohol from them and this often was often a much more sanitary drink than water.
Even if cider was considered cultural acceptable by the puritans it still ended up as a target of the temperance movement with public calls to cut down the trees.
Apple as healthy and delicious fruit is just a relatively recent PR coup of the industry to make the fruit acceptable again.
Beauty/The Tulip
After pages on the aesthetic values of flower (factoid only African culture do not value the beauty of flower, probably because they are too busy trying to find food). The author give an account of the first speculative bubble. The mechanism of which are still very relevant today. Will we ever learn form our mistake?
Intoxication/Marijuana
Explore the motivation for the war on drugs and describe the associated loss of civil liberty.
Also speculate on the cultural and litterer influence of cannabis and other drugs as mutating agents for ideas.
Control/The potato
Examine the strong cultural and political opposition to the introduction of such a wonderful staple food in Europe illustrating again the struggle between Apollo and Dionysus.
Then the author narrate the Irish famine a perfect illustration of a Mathusaliam economic disaster. The principal cause of the famine, the monoculture of potatoes is also the greatest sin of modern agriculture.
This part of the book give account of modern agriculture practices. In particular the clean field method, where the land is regularly dosed with all kind of chemical to make sure that only the desired crop can survive.
After spreading some chemicals called "Monitor" the farmers do not go in the field for four of five days even if the sprinkler system is broken and threaten to ruin the lot. Just to prevent aesthetically unpleasant, but harmless brown spot due to aphids.
The most striking part is the account of the industrial farm, which after disregarding organic agriculture as unable to feed the world, admit that he does not eat his own potatoes and himself prefer to eat organic.
The last part is devoted to genetically modified food, its dangers and unknowns. It explain the principle of "substantial equivalence", that is mixing an approved gene or chemical with an harmless plant does not require any testing or labeling before being commercialized. No research on genetic instability. Thanks lobby, thanks congress.
You will learn this precious pearl. GMO are not considered food and therefore are not under the umbrella of the FDA, they are instead classified as pesticide and as such are regulated by the EPA ! Bonne appetit.
