What Pollan wants us to recognize is this: biodiversity. What led to the Irish potato famine in the 1840s was the absence of a diverse crop of potatoes. The Irish discovered that one variety of potato, the Lumper, grew so well in their type of soil that they need not grow any other.
Monoculture is still practiced today in Idaho where you’ll see vast fields of one single variety of potato – the ever popular Russet Burbank.
In the epilogue to his book, Pollan ponders the relationship Chapman had with apples, why tulip lovers love their tulips, marijuana growers in Amsterdam, and the Monsanto scientists who wrestle with chemical control methods in plants: “All of them had ventured into the garden – into Darwin’s Ever-Expanding Garden of Artificial Selection – for the purpose of marrying powerful human drives to the equally powerful drives of plants; all were practitioners of the botany of desire.”
As for common gardeners like you and me, Pollan says, “They took it for granted that domestication was something people did to plants, never the other way around.”
I had the privilege of viewing The Botany of Desire in advance of the date it’s set to air. I came away with a fresh perspective on what it means to be a gardener.
I’m sure you’ll be entertained and enlightened, you might even discover that you’ve been a botanist of desire ever since the day you planted your first flower.
T.C. Conner is a Master Gardener and columnist and columnist for Allied News. He can be reached at tc@thewritegardener.com. Check out his blog at http://thewritegardener.blogspot.com.
Column published in Allied News Oct. 21. Pick up a copy at 201A Erie St., Grove City.
SHORTAGE OF FOOD POSSIBLE
DUE TO MONOCULTURE?????
SCOTT MURRAY, a local organic farmer and Food sustainability
expert from San Deigo, spoke at the BRIGHT GREEN FUTURE
CONFERENCE October 24-25. The video is in response to a
question posed by KEEP THE BEET MEDIA STAR,
THE WORLD's FIRST TALKING BEET PLANT.
I asked the question in her behalf.
Most of our food today is regulated form the top down, rather than the bottom up. This is Food Safetyturned inside out, and upside down. In a little over one hour in July The House of Representatives passes a law called US BILL #HR2749 to give the FDA more regulatory powers locally in the name of FOOD SAFETY, yet the bill does not say anything about the dangers of monoculture, the healthrisks of pesticides. The bill does make our world safe for multinational companies who value centralized food production. We once stored five years of food in case of possible issues that can arise when one kind of food is hit by a virus. Today we have around four weeks of food standing between usand no food in our stores. The folks who control our food thought it was not too good for profits to spend all the money with food storage. The Bright Green Future in this is a wakeup call to begin to grow your ownorganic seeds in your own backyard and among your neighbors. Growing one Beet in a pot, even a repotted beet you get form a local, organic farmer is enough to cure you of the miscoceptionthat you cannot grow your own food. KEEP THE BEET become a BEET KEEPER today.
FULL DISCLOSURE.
THESE ARE KEEP THE BEET's SPONSORS
and YOU CAN BE ONE TOO!
THE GREAT EARTH CLEANUP
SPONSORS:
KEEP The BEET Media Star
The World's First Talking BEET PLANT
is brought to you by
the following ENCHANTED GARDEN CLUB
Members and ALLIES
who get Four Fingers Up
for the work they are doing
to advance her project
to restore our beautiful earth
to the Enchanted Garden
she wants to see for everybody:
KEEP THE BEET's NEW COLUMN
IN SPACE OF LOVE MAGAZINE
KEEP THE BEET MEDIA STAR
THE WORLD's FIRST TALKING BEET PLANT
AIMS TO BECOME the US CZARINA of FOODS.
READ ALL ABOUT IT.
"KEEP the BEET Media Star,
The World's First Talking Beet Plant,
said "I am committed and excited
about my project to create a nation of gardeners."
--PAIGE DONNER
HUFFINGTON POST
DANCE OF THE HASEEDS
KEEP THE BEET's NEXT STOP
is the PACIFIC SYMPOSIUM 09.
SET UP NOVEMBER 3.
2:30 PM here, loading
5:00 PM Set up at the CATAMARAN RESORT HOTEL http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1507935
SPECIAL THANKS
to ANTHONY RUSSO
for sponsoring
SDSU EARTHDAY PHOTOS
2009. Anthony runs BIOSMART
and EARTHSMART, producers of
compostable alternative dinnerware
made from bagasse, a sugar cane
by-product.
This alternative dinnerware
the a vital part of
KEEP the BEET's
THE END OF STYROFOAM
ENCHANTED GARDEN PROJECT,
09-10.
SDSU PHOTOS Sponsored by ANTONY RUSSO of EARTH SMART.
and BIOSMART.
ANTHONY, according to KEEP The BEET Media Star,
is offering an alternative that can put Styrofoam
out of business! Styrofoam damages sea life +.
Earth Smart disposable ware is made of sugar cane
and earthworms will eat it.
I met ANTHONY RUSSO at
the SDSU EARTH DAY, April 24.
He makes disposable eating ware
out of sugarcane.
ANTHONY ZOLEZZI, Sustainability Expert, one of my Green Heroes. Anthony is authorof PESTICIDE FREE KIDS, and is a significant voice for a GREEN HOLLYWOOD.Read my blog about Anthony here and be sure to read some of his own blogs:
ANTHONY ZOLEZZI is one of the main inspirations behind
GREENOPS, a new Recycling Redemption project
that launches on Earth Day. GrEENOPOLIS is the
Social Network site. I am sure there are going
to be companies using plastic blottles for years.
This is a great project to make sure that those
producing drinks and other products in plastic
begin responsible for a program that sees
the bottles they sell are returned to the store
that sells it.
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