A few quotes from Pollan's first part of The Omnivore's Dilemma really made me think and then completely disagree but one stood out to me,
"In the
third age of food processing, which begins with the end of World War II,
merely preserving the fruits of nature was deemed too modest: The goal
now was to improve on nature." (91)
To think that humans improve nature is preposterous, actually there are many examples in nature when species improve themselves to adapt to the environment including the animals that co-inhabit the land. One specific example that I can think of now, and in which we as gwu students are currently dodging, is the poo berries from the gingko trees. Contrast to the cute name gwu students have given them, poo berries are not berries at all...they are seeds which are encased in a fruit. To us, the fact that these seeds smell terrible is a real inconvenience, but no one seems to question why they smell.
Gingko trees evolved in an area of the world that was highly inhabited with komodo dragons, some lizards, and iguanas. These animals have very poor senses of smell, so the gingko trees adapted to produce a foul smelling acid in order to attract these species that would eat the fruits and carry to seeds away to germinate in new soils. However, in North Carolina you don't really see komodo dragons walking on the sidewalk...but some animal will eat them and carry the seeds away.
That is just one specific example of how smart nature is and in my opinion animals just move around seeds and do the work of plants so that the plants survive and thrive. Which in turn allows us to live because of the oxygen byproducts.
There were several scientific issues I had with the reading, but Pollan does a good job and getting the reader's attention which is his job as an author.
Which animals in NC like the poo berries? Will the trees, moved here by man across many oceans (hubris) need to evolve to their new environment? Does their presence on campus improve on nature (since, I'm guessing, Gingko trees are not native to NC).
ReplyDeleteYour quote reminded me of a comment I read this weekend about Googles attempt to "solve cancer." Solve, not cure, but solve. We certainly look at things differently now (as problems to be solved, not diseases to be cured) given the technology and possibility at our finger tips.
The poo berry trees were given to Gardner-Webb as a gift, they are not found in the United States naturally unless someone bought one and planted it. So we are stuck with them, I'm not sure but there are probably some animals that will eat the berries. I haven't ever seen a squirrel eating one, but skunks may eat them as well as other scavenger animals such as opossums and raccoons.
ReplyDeleteI asked Dr. Jones and he said the only animals in our area that would eat poo berries would be turtles, every other animal just stays away
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