Throughout history, there has been revolutions that brought us to where we are today. One vast and dramatic revolution, maybe even the biggest, was the transition from a hunting and gathering society to an agricultural society. The transition between gathering wild plants and hunting wild animals to the growing of crops and taming of animals. Many people agree agriculture was one of the best developments that happened in history for many reasons; however, there has been strong evidence that shows that may not be completely accurate. Although agriculture brought some positive advancements, it also brought social and gender inequality, spread of diseases, and malnutrition that led agriculture to become the worst mistake in history.
With the
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Diseases existed even when people lived in hunting and gathering societies. In spite of this, it was the start of agriculture that enabled diseases to spread faster, too so many people, and cause epidemics . It all started with the growing of plants, which required people to build houses near their crops. These houses first started as villages and some developed into cities. Since many people were crowded and in close contact with one another, it was easier for diseases to spread. On the other hand, the groups of people in a hunting and gathering society consisted of about 30-50 people and they moved around a lot, not settling in one place like people did during agriculture. It was harder for diseases to spread when people didn 't stay in one specific place and were scattered across the world. For example, with the start of cities came the start of measles and bubonic plague. Diseases are a big factor in the deaths of many and some deaths would not have happened if not for …show more content…
We, as Jared Diamond puts it, “...traded quality for quantity”. Our diet today consists of a lot of carbs such as rice and potatoes from starch crops. Modern hunter and gathers have a much better diet that consists of protein and a greater variety of nutrients. We could easily starve if if even one crop catches a diseases for it could spread to the others. During the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s, so many Irish people 's lives were impacted, killing so many from the effects of starvation. This is less likely to happen to Bushmen, hunters and gathers, that consume 75 plus of wild plants. To see the divergence between diets now and diets back then, the technique of paleopathology, examining the health or lack of health of the remains of skeletons, was used. Using this technique people found that skeletons from Greece and Turkey were much taller than people nowadays, in the 21st century. Based on the evidence collected, men were around 5’9” and women were 5’5” during the hunting and gathering age. This is so much different than the 21st century when people men can be 5’3” and even women 5’5”. Other skeletons, indian farming skeletons, show even more shocking discoveries as George Armelagos and other archaeologists from the University of Massachusetts find out. These skeletons are proof that farmers have much more malnutrition, more infective diseases, and its assumed
Jared Diamond Argues that the worst mistake in Human History is the invention and widespread introduction of agriculture, because it has created a plethora of social, economic, and health problems for the word. One example of this is when the article states, “Hunter-Gatherers enjoyed a varied diet, while early farmers obtained most of their food from one or a few starchy crops. The farmers gained cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition.” This illustrates that the author's main argument is that agriculture was the worst mistake in human history because it shows how agriculture has negatively impacted health of both early farmers and people today by creating mass produced bulk crops that are low in nutrition. Furthermore, another example
The 1920’s were the singularly most influential years of farming in our country. The loss of farms following the war, and new agricultural practices resulted in the dawn of modern agriculture in our country. The shift from small family to big corporation during this time is now the basis for how our society deals with food today. Traditional farming in the 1920’s underwent a series of massive transitions following WWI as the number of farms decreased and the size of farms increased.
production of goods and foods decreased drastically and this ultimately led to starvation as people were
The Orcs of Middle Earth trampled through the forest leaving a visible path of broken branches. In another part of Middle Earth, Ents spent their time slowly and thoughtfully making decisions. The land culture of the Ents in The Lord of the Rings differs greatly from the Orcs, thus, providing readers a view of Tolkien’s perspectives of agrarianism and current culture. An Orc’s nature is just to follow the orders of their leader and that is all. It is not as much that Orcs don’t like the nature, but that they are unaware of it and it’s importance. Ent’s are known to do everything slowly, from decision making, to talking. These relationships to land correlate to modern views of the land. Wendell Berry is a writer and farmer, who is a leader
Jared Diamond makes the argument that when humans decided 10,000 years ago to no longer be hunter-gatherers and made the decision to become sedentary and start domesticating their animals and crops, the result is that the human race has experienced a steady downfall. Diamond makes the point that “with agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism that curse our existence,” (Diamond). While the present system certainly is far from being perfected, Diamond’s various complaints and solutions certainly would not be of much use in the present time either.
In 1957 the European Economic Community, the precursor to the European Union, was formed by the signing of the Treaty of Rome. The nations of Belgium, West Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands signed the Treaty in order to form an economic community that would solidify Europe in response to the continental division during World War Two and to form “a closer union” among member nations. The continent had been reeling from the devastation of two world wars and many agreed that in order to prevent future war the nations of Europe must come together. The treaty allowed for easier trade and travel between member nations and the synchronizing of many economic regulations (Lisbon). One early example of economic synchronization
According to Aberth, "disease is a constant force in human history that has had much more than just demographic repercussions"(Aberth 2007, Pg.X). It has created fear, awareness, pain and frustration for the lack of knowledge of it cause. In 1500 through the 20th century, the primary reasons for disease to spread so effectively are animals, trade routes and colonization/ imperialism. The disease was widely spread through warm climate and the geographic of the world because the virus host bacteria was able to grow and attack the human body.
Majority of the farmers were gaining cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition. The
Our monster, agriculture, has spread and advanced much like how Frankenstein describes the event if the creator reproduced “ … a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror. ”(122 Shelley) Our invention of the agriculture has left the environment endangered and it hurts the ones who supposedly were to benefit from it, humans. Yet we care very little about agriculture today, but it is crucial to our existence, but it also may to our demise.
Title: The Agricultural Transformation that occurred in the New and Old Worlds was a momentous phase in the history of humankind, which radically changed all aspects of human life. The development of agriculture in history is known as producing, processing, packaging, marketing, and researching of food and fiber. Prior to this progress, human beings relied on hunting and gathering for survival and lived a nomadic lifestyle. However, due to the advancing skills and knowledge of growing plants and domesticating animals, humankinds started to localize in permanent location over many generations.
Farming civilizations are more adept at sustaining the development of infectious crowd diseases. This is because agriculture sustains a higher population densities therefore disease can evolve more. In addition most microbes can be spread if feces are left behind, but farmers are sedentary and they live amid their own sewage sometimes using them as fertilizers allowing the microbes not to spread. Farmers also trade with other societies which allows diseases to spread to new populations.
If it were not for agriculture, people would still have to hunt and gather for their own food. In Jared Diamond’s article, he states that “while farmers concentrate on high-carbohydrate crops like rice and potatoes, the mix of wild plants and animals in the diets of surviving hunter-gatherers provides more protein and a better balance of other nutrients” (Diamond 2). Although the beginning stages of agriculture were mostly rice and potatoes, it has now transformed over time and farmers are able to grow any type of fruits and vegetables they want. Not having the right proportion of food or the right nutrients for the body is not a problem anymore because of how agriculture has advanced today. Agriculture today is able to give people a copious amount of food that is able to be stored for a long period of time and is available anywhere around the world. Shortage of nutrients was not the only problem people had during the transition; they also had a problem of catching infectious diseases. During the transition of being hunter-gatherers to farmers, “agriculture encouraged people to clump together in crowded societies, many of which then carried on trade with other crowded societies, led to the spread of parasites and infectious disease” (Diamond 4). This problem resulted in finding out the cure or different medications for diseases such as tuberculosis. If it were not for the many diseases that existed throughout the years,
The blessing and curse of the Agricultural Revolution is advocated with its augmentation and dissemination. Taking the stipulative definition of “blessing” and “curse” from the original premise, one can only superimpose the layman’s terms of “negative” and “positive”. Upon examination of the two classifications within the Neolithic Period and ancient Mesopotamian civilization one can confirm the premise. Therefore, the agriculture revolution was a blessing and a curse for humanity. Human society began to emerge in the Neolithic Period or the New Stone Age. This new age began around 9,000 B.C.E. by the development of agriculture in the region surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and what is commonly referred to as “The Fertile Crescent” located in West Asia.1 The very development of agriculture had benefited humans by no longer having to move about in search of wild game and plants. Unencumbered by nomadic life humans found little need to limit family size and possessions and settled in a single location for many years. One negative aspect of this settling is that the population increased so much so that wild food sources were no longer sufficient to support large groups. Forced to survive by any means necessary they discovered using seeds of the most productive plants and clearing weeds enhanced their yield.2 This also lead humans to develop a wider array of tools far superior to the tools previously used in the Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age. The spread of the Agricultural Revolution in the Neolithic Period also cultivated positive aspects by creating connections with other cultures and societies. Through these connections they exchanged knowledge, goods, and ideas on herding and farming.3 Another major positive aspec...
The backbone of a stable nation, socially and politically, is agriculture. Agriculture is the largest sector that provides a nation with food and employment. Agriculture is currently being affected by climate change and at the same time it is also a contributor to climate change. The drastic elevations in climate change started from the mid to late 20th century and they have been increasing since then (Boisvenue & Running 2006). Climate change is affecting agriculture by interfering with the efficiency of crop production. Agriculture is facing droughts, flooding, sea level elevations, natural disasters, and health hazards for employees. All of these exponents lead to crop failure that creates famines and food prices to rise. On the other side, agriculture is also contributing to climate change through their output of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints. These are caused by the activities that agriculture engages with such as breeding of livestock, ploughing of fields, deforestation, and the use of pesticides and other agrochemicals. Climate change affects countries differently, mainly due to their ability to adapt and their geographical location. Canada and Russia benefit from the changes in climate while Sudan and Bangladesh are affected negatively, struggling to adapt. Agriculture and climate change are interrelated processes that exist mutually making it harder to reduce one without affecting the other.
Would you enjoy having fresh, delicious, luscious vegetables to eat all summer long that cost you almost nothing? I know I would. Well, now you can have your veggies and eat them too. Try building your own vegetable garden. It can fit all sizes of yards and decks. You just need to pick the location and type of garden. Next, you will prepare the garden site and work the soil. Finally, you will plan the specifics and plant your garden. With some care and patience, you will be enjoying the fruits of your labor in no time.