More importantly, Pollan elucidates the apple’s dynamic transcontinental journey. Interweaving the iterative development of Puritan religious beliefs with ideological nationalist beliefs like Manifest Destiny and pragmatic pioneer concerns during Westward Expansion, he locates the special status that apples and, by proxy, apple cider, held during the nineteenth century. Pollan poignantly opens his book focused on how apples have influenced the American narrative and episteme. Our human quest for power, and our desires for survival and wealth, to escape the confines of reality, and for control can all be witnessed through our relationship with our environment.

Our personal narrative, sustenance, emotions, and imagination – our very humanity – can be mapped and explained through our relationship with our environment: in this case, with plants. In his 2001 book, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan examines the timeless, bidirectional, and dynamic relationship humans and plants share by honing in on our relationship with four plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. From a medical perspective, we tend to associate healthcare with reactive care to disease, rather than the literal preventive nature of our environment. Yet the relationship between our health and environment is much more intimate and interconnected. The current COVID-19 pandemic is a prime example. Microbes, viruses, and their variants are often how humans connect health and the environment.

The botany of desire