The potato, as Michael Pollen describes in The Botany of Desire, has been transformed through artificial selection from a small node to a well-nourishing potato. He attempts to analysis the spud from his New Leaf potato garden from the perspective of the plant while all the while entertaining the idea that plants and people have an intimate relationship with each other. Pollen’s hypothesis of the NewLeaf potato suggests that, over time, industry and technology have stolen the plant’s evolutionary say in the matter and that it never became the object of our desires. I disagree with Pollen’s hypothesis; technology in breeding genetically modified potatoes has been a Godsend. GMO crops reduce the overall cost to grow them, they are sustainable for growing population demands and they provide certain nutritional benefits that organic potatoes cannot provide.
GMO or conventional crops, as growers call them, are a type of monoculture that grows in the soil with the aid of pesticides. These pesticides can be either applied to the crop or they can be engineered into the seed for the same reason. They allow the plant, like the NewLeaf potato, to defend itself from harmful insects and diseases, which over the course of the season, leads to higher yields. They have also improved the NewLeafs’ water use efficiency in the soil. Aside from these cost saving benefits, GMOs ultimately take a lot of the workload off of the farmers’ shoulders by being able to partially look after themselves. Pollen expresses his concerns about this from the basis of a “micro-attitude.” His small garden gives him limited insight to what conventional industry farming can really provide. Generally speaking, organic production ultimately leads to decreased yields primarily because organic crops experience nitrogen deficiencies since they only receive it from manure. This means that in order to match conventional crop yields; more organic land would have to be farmed, thus making it less sustainable than conventional crops. Pollen also mentions that some of the sweetest potatoes that he has ever tasted were grown from a pile of manure. This is because those potatoes were getting an abundance of nitrogen, which cannot be said, for the majority of organic potatoes. Being able to receive the correct amounts of nitrogen, water and other essential nutrients can only be ensured through conventional farming.
Since GMO crops, such as the NewLeaf, can be engineered to save on water usage, this leads to less-diluted nutrient concentrations in the vegetable thus leading to a tastier product. Another concern that Pollen expresses is the fact that we are ultimately manipulating the plants’ structure for our own desires. This is exactly true; we are developing a plant that will continue to meet market demands while at the same time, providing a healthier source of nutrition. He thinks we are simply filling these potatoes with “poison” for no added benefit as far as organics are concerned. When in reality, people have been more statistically taken care of by disease prevention and reduction in E-coli outbreaks by pesticide treated crops. Crops grown in small gardens like Pollens’ can be easily manipulated past the point of understanding that efficient growth and production can only be achieved if all the “tools” are utilized. Thus pesticides and GMOs are the main tools that help achieve this level of efficiency. Confusion may have developed when Pollen advised against these tools from an environmental standpoint. He worries that chemical farming will harm beneficial insects like the Monarch Butterfly or contribute to the “pollution problem.” Since he does not use tractors in his little garden, he would most likely miss the point that it takes more equipment to produce a matching yield of organic product verses what it would take to produce a conventional yield. There are such things as selective pesticides that target only the “bad” bugs, farmers are aware of the risks and take the necessary precautions to ensure that the environment and its organisms remain healthy, after all that is the description of a farmer; someone he cares about the welfare of plants and their environment.
Technology only frightens those who do not understand its benefits. Pollen sees the advancement of his NewLeafs as a modified monster that has been engineered to harm its consumers. When in reality, fighting climate change and reducing our environmental footprint have been the driving points behind the innovation among other things. Pollen’s point is that potatoes have a right to “think” for themselves as if they had a conscience, for the sake of argument let’s say they do and they are in fact intelligent organisms that is fine we are simply making them smarter. If a possible misunderstanding results from these intentional advances, then an individual should ask him/her-self why would we want to harm ourselves for the benefit of greed or desired control? The thought could appear contradictory since technology only goes as far as the market trusts it, obviously there is a lot of support since Monsanto and it’s GMOs are a global leader in improved sustainable agricultural business. Pollen goes on to question various potato farmers for their input on Monsanto’s biotechnology. The answers he received were of a negative nature towards Monsanto only because Pollen narrowed his study questions with specific downsides that, in the grand scheme of things, are irrelevant to sustainable and profitable potato production. After being assured by the EPA, FDA and various government agencies that consuming NewLeaf potatoes was blaringly safe, Pollen continues to stubbornly error on the side of paranoia possibly for something as simple as peace of mind.
Conventional farming may not be as sanitary as organic agriculture but with no statistics proving that GMOs are harmful to our health, it is hard for someone like Pollen to completely over look the fact that these technologically advanced tools will be the number one aid in sustainable crop production even if we did take away the plants’ ability to “evolve” on its own.
