History of Agriculture

Background

Agriculture, which refers to the cultivation of food and products from agriculture, produces most of the world's food. This tradition has been practiced continuously for the last 13,000 years1 and is thought to have been widely established for only 7,000 years. 2 In terms of the long course of human history, this is only a problem in the pot compared to the writing time of our ancestors of about 200,000 years. , hunting and digging. Agriculture has transformed human life throughout its short history. It has supported the world population, which has grown from 4 million to 7 billion since 10,000 and continues to increase. 3

The road to present day has not been easy. Depletion of resources, rapid growth, diseases, climate change and other temporary effects cause food shortages as well as starving poor people. We still face many of the same challenges as our ancestors, as well as new and greater threats. To successfully navigate the uncertain future, we can start by learning from the past.

Dawn of Agriculture

Paleoanthropologists estimate that the earliest fossil evidence of Homo sapiens (anatomically modern humans) is around 196,000 years old. 4 Since the evolution of our animals, we have often obtained their food from wild animals. 1.5 Wild foods and mushrooms were important elements of the Paleolithic diet and are also the wild ancestors of some species of animals farmed today. 6 Although hunting of ancestral wild animals is often described as a conflict with livestock, early humans began hunting declining insects 7 and cleaning up dead animals. 8

BC As early as 11,000 people began to break free from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle by growing crops and raising animals for food. The transition to agriculture is believed to have occurred independently in many parts of the world, including northern China, Central America, and the Fertile Crescent (the birthplace of some of the most successful in the Middle East). 1 By 6000 BC most of the farm animals we know today had been domesticated. 1 BC By 5000, agriculture was being done on every continent except Australia. 2

Why did people stop hunting and gather to farm? There are many causes, each at different times and in different parts of the world:

Dawn of Civilizations

For better or worse, agriculture is the driving force behind the growth of civilization.

Farming may require more labor than hunting and gathering, but is thought to provide 10 to 100 times more calories per acre. 5 Eating more food can support neighbors, and agriculture connects people to the land. Small towns turned into cities, and cities turned into cities. 1

Agriculture produces enough food to allow people to pursue their own interests without worrying about what they will eat that day. Those who were not necessarily farmers took on the roles of soldiers, priests, leaders, artists, and scientists. As the first civilizations began to form, political and religious leaders rose to dominate them, creating classes of "haves" and "haves". While hunter-gatherers generally believed that resources were available to all, agriculture led to people's ownership of land, food, and money that were not (and are still not) fairly distributed. 1,13

Some have questioned whether hunter-gatherer lifestyle-based migration is in line with the human view, and pointed to the inequality, food shortages, and military conflicts that followed the development of agriculture. 1.5 A prominent scientist even called agriculture "the greatest mistake in human history". human history. 12 Maybe so, but given the size and density of modern-day humans, returning to the Paleolithic way of life is not an option. But hunting, gathering, and agriculture can complement each other, providing humans with a variety of food sources. For example, people still collect aquatic plants and animals from the oceans, and even city dwellers can find fruits, vegetables and mushrooms in local parks.

Limits to Growth

In the history of civilization... the plow far surpassed the sword in destructive power.

– Daniel Hillel 15

When The Population Boom

From 1900 to 2011, the world population grew from 1.6 billion to 7 billion. 20 Despite population growth, in 2012 the world's farmers produced enough calories to feed the entire population and 1.6 billion people. 21 Hunger is still a global problem because these calories are uneven among the population and most of the world's food is inedible. But its best results are eclipsed by the previous generation. What makes unprecedented wealth possible?

To date, innovations in food production and distribution have helped the food supply keep pace with population growth. Native American products such as maize, sweet potatoes and yams are available all over the world. Food from cultivated crops helped prevent malnutrition and support population growth in the 18th century. 20 The expansion of railroads, canals, and new machinery to store and transport grain has helped the United States become the largest exporter of wheat and corn. 22 Advances in refrigerated transportation have allowed farmers to transport perishable food more quickly. 23

Of all the agricultural innovations, probably none have had a greater impact than fertilizers (especially technology that converts nitrogen dioxide into a form (ammonia) that can be used for crops. Synthetic fertilizers, first introduced in the early 1900s, greatly increased the effectiveness of fertilizers.) crop yields (though not perfect) and is credited with providing much of the world's food in the 20th century.24 The use of these and other chemicals has become an important part of agriculture.