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Why This Book Matters:
The Botany of Desire is an intriguing narrative on humans’ relationship with plants and how they control our four major senses: sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control. Written by Prof. Michael Pollan, the book further explores how humans, being manipulated by these four senses, help plants reproduce and grow stronger.
The Big Takeaways:
- As humans benefit from plants, plants benefit from humans.
- If Just like attracting insects to spread their pollen for reproduction, plants attract basic human senses to get the same help from humans.
- The most eye-catching factor to humans in plants is their beauty.
- Plants make us slaves to their beautifying appeal. The attraction is so strong that we would give a beautiful red rose to our loved ones, instead of a basket of apples.
- The story of Johnny Appleseed is another example of our craving for sweetness.
- In the early 1800s, sugar was considered a luxury in North America. John Chapman’s apple trees made it possible for the poor to afford sweet apples.
- Marijuana plants satisfy our taste for intoxication.
- Humans are prone to alter their psychoactive perceptions. Plants like Marijuana – despite being prohibited – are attractive due to their intoxicative abilities.
- The introduction of potato plants finally gave us control of our dietary needs.
- First introduced to Europe in the sixteenth century, potato crops have ultimately given us control of our food requirements, as well as being a power shifting factor throughout history.
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