Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 9:52 PM
sent by Brica Wilcox


Reality…

In the introduction to Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire, he mentions Darwin's use of the word artificial not to reference a fake, but rather an artifact, "a thing reflecting human will." He claims that this artificial affect on nature from human desire is the more likely path to survival for nature than without it along for the ride. Certainly this description fits with much of what we understand of the history of the Deep End Ranch, whether we look from the point of view of some of its owners (starting a safari resort) or exterior forces (St. Francis Dam flood). Those two examples in terms of their fulfillment of human desire are seen as a failure and a disaster, but this seems to be exactly the "uncharted way" that Pollan sees as our current moment.

The chapter “Apples” as well as our discussion about the seedless tangerines revealed, the relationship between seed and plant is a mythologized one that bares little relationship to the reality of production. The simple story of the seed might maintain the belief we could grow our own food if we had to, but in any case, is this less true all the time with genetic modifications that include producing “suicide seeds”? But anyhow, I like this vegetable garden at the White House action.

-Brica

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