Inside PBS Blog

Why can't I post this on twitter? And yes I am following you.

Can you please talk about the pollination of these plants? Are these 4 essential plants tied to the honeybee? What can we do to insure their pollination if the bee disappears (hopefully not)?

This documentary on the merits of polyculture and humans becoming more literate about our relationships with plants and their relationships with us was an extraordinary production of Michael Pollan's thesis. I look forward to more.

Greetings:

My wife and I just watched 'The Biology of Desire', and we both learned many new things from the show! Our thanks for that. One thing I was surprised about, with regard to Monsanto's 'New Leaf' potato, is that you didn't mention Dr. Arpad Pusztai. Very basically, Dr. Pusztai was a researcher at an institute at the University of Edinburgh. When Monsanto developed their New Leaf potato he developed an experiment to feed these potatoes to juvenile rats, and regular potatoes to a control group of rats. The rats fed the genetically modified potatoes developed a host of problems, including underdeveloped hearts, livers and other organs. Dr. Pusztai wrote a couple of papers on his findings and agreed to give two interviews on the BBC. Within 48 hours of giving the interviews he was fired, his staff was fired, his lab was locked down, his files were confiscated and his wife was fired from her position on a university committee. He had no choice but to resort to the internet, and his page is now at: http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/a.pusztai/

If you're planning to do any other program on genetically modified foods, a Google search on Dr. Pusztai, or an interview with him would be highly recommended. There are only four basic proteins that make up a DNA strand, but the combinations of those proteins are what make life what it is. We can't go around cutting and pasting genes willy nilly from one species to another without expecting some consequences.

Mike.

Why is the fact that we are using low wage immigrant labor considered as part of the economic element of agriculture. Pesticides harm their health? Please interview them next time and expose the atrocities of the effects of pesticides on workers. Kudos for at least showing these workers but that is not saying much.

I so despise when some author claims or presents their findings as if they themselves were the originator of some great idea or unique concept (it having happened to me many times during my life).

I was looking forward to watching this show, until I heard the very first opening lines.

The authors of this show did NOT discover the idea of plants controlling animals. In fact this (as far as I know) was first proposed by Terrence McKenna in his book "Food of the Gods" 1992. I have been telling people about this unique way of looking at the world ever since reading it in his book. That we are being evolved by plants to do their bidding, not the other way around.

I just wanted to let people know, that the authors of this program are not the unique creative thinkers they are representing themselves to be. This concept has been around for a long time. No doubt they read Terrence McKenna's book long ago and thought they could make a dollar off of that idea today.

I'm appalled that PBS didn't do more checking into this, and at least would have made references to the originator of this concept. Rather than let the authors of this program try to take credit for an idea that they did not originate.

Don't give me the song and dance about how people can independently make discoveries. Because McKenna's book also addresses drugs (primarily), vegetables, flowers, etc. We have, in effect, a video presentation of Terrence McKenna's book. Nothing more, nothing less.

It is so depressing to see an alleged intelligent organization broadcast such a sophomoric, incomplete, technically-deficient feel-good piece. A student effort would be sent back to the originator as being devoid of adequate factual information to warrant sharing with the public. The producer did not do his homework nor did he seek professional assistance to assure that his product was minimally accurate.

Look at the type of writing and the intention of the two books. Pollan is a journalist and his intent is to raise awareness of the the dangers of monoculture and genetic engineering. He wrote his book 10 years after McKenna's. McKenna, from what you are saying, was more interested in the idea that plants are active participants in evolution. It sounds like a good book! I agree that McKenna should have been acknowledged, but after ten years his thesis has passed into the general body of knowledge in the fast world of science journalism.

Not sure who to send this to?

Is there a way you can fix the "Botany of Desire" video on the site? There's something wrong with it, the worst part is you can't seek, which is major pain for a video this length. (miss a part & you have to start all over) You can tell it's messed up by the "time left", it says it's over 9 hours long! This is the only video on the site with this problem...It should be a simple fix.
Thanks

Who didn't read their Irish history when they wrote about the famine?
1. The Irish were forced off their own land by anti-Catholic laws, then forced to pay rent to live on a small part of their former land. They had to grow grain for the rent, which they were not allowed to eat--ever. They were given a tiny plot on which to grow potatoes.
2. 2 million Irish died in the famine, which lasted five years. Another million and a half emigrated.

For the most part I found Botany of Desire enjoyable and appropriate for the intended audience. It is not a one-sided rant, nor a highly-technical research article, nor a wholly new conception sprung full-formed from the brow of its creator, but I can hold none of these against it. It is, for the most part, an entertaining and informative introduction to some plant/human interactions that is entirely appropriate for the intended non-specialist audience. So, for what it is, I think it succeeds quite well, but of course it is not all things to all people.

However, as a botanist, there is one factual error that to me is glaring and quite unfortunate. In the vicinity of 36-37 minutes into the show, Pollan explains the key innovation of angiosperms as being *sex*. This is not the case. All major lineages of plants, from mosses to ferns to conifers to angiosperms, have sexual reproduction, at least in the majority of cases. Asexual species exist in most plant ineages, but are no more prevalent among the various non-flowering plants than in flowering plants. This error should really have been caught in editing at some point; I would have hoped a show about botany would have sought the editorial assistance of botanists familiar with at least the very basic aspects of plant life cycles! It is particularly ironic since the key innovations of angiosperms were features that promote co-evolution with animals: flowers and fruits! The truth fits Pollan's conceptual framework far better than does the error that was presented.

does any one know how to spell the name of the naturally ocuring drug that they say shares the thc receptors?

This show made reference to thc & pain reduction. It offered proof that marijuana use helps patients who suffer from (chronic)pain.

I personally know this is true. Although I never knew why. When discussing this with my doctor (who is progressive) I informed that smoking (or ingesting) marijuana helps me to forget about the pain I constantly suffer and therefore helps me to limit use of opiate based pain medications.

The show refered to studies done (by an israelli doctor & others)that confirm this truth. Can you please provide me with links to these studies so that I can give them to my doctor? Thank-you.
Stephen

I hope the show talks about Mendel's research. This is an important example of how we have learnt from domestic plants. It laid the foundation of genetics, on which so much is riding today.

Ritalin which I started using when I stopped marijuana because of marijuanas illegal status before I married My wife who was an M.D., and before I started medical school. My GPA on Ritalin was significantly lower but laws punish those who break them so if I wanted to become a doctor I had to stop marijuana. Note looking back, as of today it is clear that my quality life has been significantly reduced since I stopped marijuana and started Ritalin. Dr. Hide, Matiscaal