In the beginning of the documentary The Botany of Desire, journalist Michael Pollan broaches an interesting subject. “We don’t give nearly enough credit to plants,” he says. “They have been working on us. They’ve been using us for their own purposes.” But how is this so? Plants do not have brains, feelings or agency in their lives or ours.
Or do they?
While that is left up to the audience to deduce, Pollan spreads out the pieces to the old and grand puzzle of the intertwined worlds of humans and plants before our eyes.
Based on Pollan’s book, The Botany of Desire follows the history, source and lives of four of the most common plants in our world: apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato. Pollan illustrates how each plant has gratified a specific human desire, enticing us to go to great lengths to obtain and experience their bounty. Interestingly, as each of these plants has provided humans with the molecules to satisfy our cravings for sweet, beauty, intoxication and control, they have also been working us in many ways. While these plants hold their satiable powers in an apparent nature, they are simultaneously following what seems like their agency, or need to evolve and thrive, in a more obscure way.
According to Pollan, he had a “failure of imagination,” when it came to plants. While planting potatoes one day, he realized that we actually work for the plants, helping to spread their biology. This changed his—and that of some of his audience members—outlook on the world of nature.
As the first example, Pollan uncovers the juicy sweetness housed by the apple. In the documentary, it tells us “thousands of years ago, the apple put us to work,” transferring its genes from central Asia to various places around the world. We tasted its sweetness and reveled in its potential to please use. Therefore, we worked to acquire it. It started as a sweetness endemic to Asia, and because of us, grew to be an iconic fruit, ripe with the ability to quench our craving.
Similar to the apple, the tulip likely started in central Asia. A slightly varied version of the traditional tulips we often see today, one of the firsts of this flower had a scent and a passionate beauty. This drew us in. Eventually, the entire Dutch nation went “mad” over the beauty of the tulip, making it a valuable commodity and spreading its seed. At the time, the Dutch dominated world trade; growing flower gardens, especially those of tulips, deemed success. We did not control the tulips; they captivated the hearts and minds of us.
The Botany of Desire shows us that every plant has the ability to make chemicals that entice humans. And it is learning how each of these plants uses this ability to further their evolution that deems so fascinating. In particular, Cannabis, which may not be beautiful or sweet, “cashes in” in on its ability to produce molecules that alter what happens in the human mind. “Cannabis [or marijuana] recognized, metaphorically speaking, that this was its path to world domination,” says Pollan. “Produce more of this molecule, and there will be more marijuana plants given more habitat by this creature [us] who likes what this molecule seems to do.” We are actually slaves to these plants. In the world of marijuana, growers cater to its many needs in order to keep up with the demand. In order to keep it healthy and able to produce what we want—or even need–they pamper it like a spoiled child. “We do anything it tells us to,” says an anonymous marijuana grower. “If the plants says it wants something, we listen and we give it to it […] we work for them.”
In the evolution of a species, Pollan says that everything counts as a factor of natural selection. To survive various threats, beings adapt their ways. For instance, with the rise of the drug war, the cannabis plant “found a way to cope.” They were moved indoors and their growing pioneers crossbred strains to create a “pot” plant that was shorter, stronger and thrived indoors. At times, people pay thousands of dollars for just one pound of this intoxicating weed.
The desire to experience something these plants offer carries a complex chain of actions and consequences, and also adds layers to their value. These plants have opened up new paths to discovery about what we desire, how we live and how we want to live. Whether it is the juicy sweetness tickling our tongues, or a state of euphoric altered consciousness, these plants have our attention, energy and willingness.
Professor William Cronon argues in his essay “The Trouble with Wilderness” that wilderness is a creation of human culture. But interestingly, Pollan’s documentary takes this idea to another level, invoking the fact that humans have both consciously and unconsciously shaped the wilderness around them. For example, what started as a fruit that was only blossoming in the mountains of Kazakhstan, the apple eventually spread across the continent and eventually the world because of human lust. Pollan’s visionary documentary uncovers a plethora of views and possibilities about our anthropocentric world, subtly enticing all viewers to extend Professor Jason Kawall’s reverence for life to all things. “In the end, the logic of nature will always win out over the logic of capitalism, the logic of the factory, the logic of efficiency,” says Pollan. “It’s always been so and it always will be so. Nature is stronger than any of our designs and nature resists our control,”
I watched this documentary with my mother. We shared the same feelings of complete awe: We are utterly self-entered in our world(s), yet we are controlled in so many ways by plants. More than we often care to admit, we share a deep relationship and status with our non-sentient earthly roommates and life sources. Their value as both means and ends is a major player in keeping our world moving. My mother said that she deeply questions whether or not plants have a conscious. “It’s almost as if they have human characteristics,” she said. “They draw you in.” She also said that it “boggled” her mind to learn about the evolution of each of these plants, and how humans have grafted certain species’ saplings in order to grow their favorite types.
I concurred with my mother when she stated that Pollan—whether he meant to or not—humanized these plants. “Are they actually laughing at us about the control they really have?” she asked. I wondered the same thing.
Probably the most important fact The Botany of Desire points out is that we humans are not standing above all other beings, calling the shots. As Pollan says, we are actually deep in this web of nature and life, from our food choices, to our flower arrangements, to our drug choices. Whether or not we want to soften our egos and admit that we have been malleable to the effects of plants, it is undeniable to deny the importance of all species in our lives. We are different because of plants, just as plants are different because of us. As the potato changed the lives in Europe, providing a source of calories that thrived, and how the tulip provided a lucrative means of business, these organic beings have sense in their own rights. As Professor Dale Jamieson analyzes the parallels between animal ethicists and environmental philosophers, Pollan almost takes this to another level, highlighting the importance of non-sentient beings in various levels of human life. We should have moral concern for all forms of life in our world. As illustrated by these four plants, the intrinsic value of non-sentient beings is perhaps deeper than we realize.
To attempt to look at the world from the point of view of plants is a step towards eradicating the alienation many modern humans may feel with nature. When talking about plants having a plan or strategy, Pollan stresses the metaphor being used; plants do not have consciousness. He does, though, point out the dearth of words in our vocabulary that illustrate, and pay homage, to the fact that species other than humans also do significant things in this world. But from my perspective, although Pollan and scientists concur that plants do not have sentience, I cannot help but wonder how true this is after watching this illustrative documentary. With such stamina and effective organic measures, the apple, the tulip, the cannabis plant and the potato have controlled their world and our world in many, many intelligent and stealth ways, making it is almost impossible not to question their possible consciousness.
For more information on The Botany of Desire, visit: http://www.pbs.org/
For more information on Michael Pollan, vistit: http://michaelpollan.com/
