Ted.com (Michael Pollan)

In class we watched a video which was on Ted.com and the speaker was Michael Pollan, who is the author of many books about food and nature.  I though this video was very interesting and really gave me an alternative way of looking at nature and our connection with nature.  Pollan suggests that we should start “looking at us and the world from a plants point of view.” At first I thought that was a bit strange, but once Pollan went on to talk about it, I really started to think about it and in a way it seems like he has something going.  He had gotten this idea one day when he was working in his garden.  I think that’s a bit funny the way people come up with the most interesting ideas.  Pollan starts talking about Darwinian revolution and that “we are one species among many and evolution is working on us, the same way its working on others.” One quote I really liked that Pollan stated was “we are really in the fabric of life,” which is very correct because we are intertwined and we can survive without some species and some species can survive without us. We need each other for survival and if one goes than the balance is no longer.  Unfortunately many haven’t or won’t absorb this lesson, but I believe that if we were to look out ourselves through the plants point of view, then we can have a better understanding of nature/life and this should help us in the future.  Pollan also spoke about how lima beans protect themselves from spider mites.  We have evolved so we should also expect that the plants around us have also evolved not just other animals.  When Pollan talks about the lima beans, it kind of reminds me of the movie The Happening where people are dying because the plants released a chemical in the air and the beginning of the movie talks about bees as well.  I thought that was a bit strange because Pollan at the beginning of the video also talks about bees and its relation to us.  Over all I found this video to be very interesting and educating.  I haven’t read any of his books, but now I think that might be something that I am interested in doing.

The video we watched: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_view.html