Great product!</br></br>Product Description</br></br><b>The book that helped make Michael Pollan???the?<i>New York Times</i>?bestselling author of?<i>Cooked</i>?and?<i>The Omnivore??s Dilemma???</i>one of the most trusted food experts in America</b><br><br>Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers:  The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and?? in the process?? spreads the  flowers?? genes far and wide. In<b> </b><i>The Botany of Desire??</i> Michael Pollan ingeniously  demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal  relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires?sweetness?? beauty??  intoxication?? and control?with the plants that satisfy them: the apple?? the tulip??  marijuana?? and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species?? Pollan  illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind??s most basic yearnings.  And just as we??ve benefited from these plants?? we have also done well by "eally domesticating whom?</br></br>Amazon.com Review</br></br>Working in his garden one day?? Michael Pollan hit pay dirt in the form of an idea: do plants?? he wondered?? use humans as much as we use them? While the question is not entirely original?? the way Pollan examines this complex coevolution by looking at the natural world from the perspective of plants is unique. The result is a fascinating and engaging look at the true nature of domestication.<p>  In making his point?? Pollan focuses on the relationship between humans and four specific plants: apples?? tulips?? marijuana?? and potatoes. He uses the history of John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) to illustrate how both the apple's sweetness and its role in the production of alcoholic cider made it appealing to settlers moving west?? thus greatly expanding the plant's range. He also explains how human manipulation of the plant has weakened it?? so that "les require more pesticide than any other food crop." The tulipomania of 17th-century Holland is a backdrop for his examination of the role the tulip's beauty played in wildly influencing human behavior to both the benefit and detriment of the plant (the markings that made the tulip so attractive to the Dutch were actually caused by a virus). His excellent discussion of the potato combines a history of the plant with a prime example of how biotechnology is changing our relationship to nature. As part of his research?? Pollan visite