When I tell people I’m involved in an agricultural career one of
the most frequent questions I get asked this time of year is, “So, what do you
do all winter?” Some time is spent working on our Winter CSA, a good deal
goes towards on preparations for the 2013 summer season, and a bit (or more)
was spent on some vacation time with my family this particular year. In
between all of that I take online classes, shadow fellow farmers to learn more
trades and grow my experience, and admittedly give into my severe addiction to
the Food Network, and Animal Planet and various History Channels on a frequent
basis.
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| Don't judge... |
Last week while watching the History Channel I noticed an episode of “Mankind:
The Story of All of Us” that caught my attention. An episode about
mankind’s survival featuring the discovery of farming? Right up my alley.
After watching the episode and taking notes like a mad woman, I thought
I’d put my learning to work and share just a few of the details here. It's hard to shrink thousands of years of history into a blog post, so try to stick with me. Hopefully it will get your own thoughts going on how farming originated as well
as some of the effects it had on the way we live today.
Our
transformation from a hunter-gatherer society to one of agricultural expertise
is one that has a number of proposed theories from various scholars.
Once we were beings with stereoscopic vision, dexterous hands, and speed
on two legs. In western Africa these traits were ones that were inherit
to us and ensured our survival against other beings that had more natural
weapons for survival. Although we use the inventions of fire and
weapons, unfortunately we are at times also the prey. At this time our
life expectancy is less than 30 and children have only a 50% chance of living
to adulthood. The population is approximately 10,000 residing in small
scattered groups, fewer than are born in a single hour today.
Eventually we wander out of Africa and over 50,000 years settle the
Middle East, Australia, Europe, and beyond. We domesticate our
first companion animal, wolves, and make them man’s best friend and the ultimate
hunting partner. We grow our population to a million in 10,000 BC and
expand even more.
At the end of the glacial period, ice begins to turn to summer rain.
While men continue to hunt, many women stay closer to the temporary home
and spend their days taking care of children and gathering wild grains.
People begin to settle around rich sources of food in larger groups now; where
before they maintained small groups that moved easily they are now in
quantities of 60 or more. 1 calorie of energy spent gathering these
grains (many ancient varieties of wheat) offers 50 in return.
(Now this is where it starts to get good…)
Discarded seeds from a previous gathering start to take root and provide
a gathering woman an idea. She, who we now refer to as “our farming
mother”, takes a risk and plants her best seeds in an attempt to take advantage
of the lush landscape available to her. She is the world’s first farmer.
Now an acre can feed 100 times as many people as were previously fed by hunting
and gathering. The crop of choice is wheat and from a 60 pound bushel
comes 70 loaves of bread. Farming is a historical game changer.
I know, it seems like common sense looking back that the first farmer
would be a woman. But to be honest, I really hadn't thought of it
before. Let me tell you, I did a celebratory dance and immediately
reached out to Jamie to make sure she knew of this too…
By 3,000 BC farming reaches southern England and marks the creation of
villages, our first settled communities. In addition to starting
our first domestication of livestock (which is believed to be pig, sheep,
goats, and cattle, the same exact animals we raise right here at Springdell)
this also paves the way for many other advances, changes, and developments.
While all of these advancements are the ones that have brought us to where we
are today, the following details can’t help but make you think about how our
civilization has become what it is today. Along with the dozens of positive effects
that farming has had on our society, it is also important to look at all sides
of history and mention some of the less desirable events that originated
because of the spread of agricultural practices and efficiency.
(Please note this is a very short mention of the major effects of farming to
get you thinking, I encourage you to look into it further!) Because of our
new trade for raising livestock, we begin living in close proximity with
animals and new diseases are more widespread. Our new
lifestyles that require less hunting and a more structured diet, and we become
what some say is less healthy. Our heights shrink and the average
male is only 5’3”. Although our main causes of death are now
different, they still exist and are occurring even a few years earlier than before.
For the first time ever people have ownership of their own land and
harvests in their settlements and challenges such as crop failure in
neighboring villages gives birth to a new enemy of mankind: war. 1 in 10
skeletons from early farming folk show signs of violence and farmers die on
average 5 years earlier than those of our hunting gathering
ancestors. Less people are needed to generate a reliable food
source now, and this provides the ability for people to take on new professions. This includes work forces that build megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge and sacred memorials and tombs like the pyramids: formal religion is born. 5,000 years ago cross
the Middle East cities arise that unite farmers and trade and industry begin to develop.
Entrepreneurship is created and a whole new type of human, society, and life
begin to prosper.
So why mention this now? Because farming is the reason for most
everything that has created the world that we live in today. As a take
away, here’s something to think about: In the mid-1800's 55% of Americans
lived on farms. As of 2012 less than 1% of the American population claims
farming as an occupation and about 2% actually live on farms. Our
population is expected to hit 9 billion by 2040 bases on current growth trends;
our farmers will be feeding more people than ever before with less land and less
resources. It turns out that although we developed farming to ensure our
population growth and stability, now it is growing so much that is may become a
challenge for our farmers to support.
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For your continued reading...
If you can locate
the program, I highly suggest viewing the show that I was able to gather much
of this information from:
History Channel 2
(H2)
Show: Mankind, The
Story of All of Us
Episode Name:
Inventors
Premiere Date:
11/13/2012
Synopsis:
Threatened by extinction, we innovate to survive. We discovered fire and
farming, build cities and pyramids, invented trade and mastered the art of war.
The History Channel 2 has also recently released "Mankind Decoded: Eat It, Drink It, Smoke It" that aired on February 9th and features more examinations on how we humans use and consume plants in various ways.
You can learn more about the history of American agricultural history through the links below. The videos on agricultural machinery are pretty neat, too.
A historical timeline of American agriculture,
accessible by decade or major subject area. From the USDA, NIFA, and
Agriculture in the classroom.
History of the Plow
in Video: “Farm Plows Kick Up Dirt”
History of the
Tractor in America Video: “Modern Farm Tractors”
-Heidi
