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Location demonstrates the most essential proximate cause needed for the development and spread of food production. Those who adopted food production earliest became fortunate because of their location. Other secondary factors only proved significant when the location was favorable. For example, different technologies and appliances had to be developed to plant and harvest crops, but they were useless unless the environment was suitable for the crops to grow. Certain indigenous animals such as cattle and sheep provided fertilizer from which crops grew, but again these species were initially only present in certain areas. “ It should come as no surprise that food production never arose in large areas of the globe, for ecological reasons that still make it difficult or impossible there today” (Diamond 93). Areas such as North America’s arctic, and deserts remote from sources of water for irrigation, were unable to develop food production (Diamond 93). Even with modern technologies most of these locations remain uninhabitable and without food production today.

Only certain areas of the world could support the Mediterranean Climate that enabled the growth of diverse cereals and pulses. These crops proved to be most suitable for independent domestication. They grow fast, are high in carbohydrates, and have a large yield (Diamond 125). “As a result, cereals today account for over half of all calories consumed by humans and include five of the modern world’s 12 leading crops” (Diamond 125). Consequently, areas such as the Fertile Crescent, which was able to support the growth of cereals and pulses, thrived over those that could not. The majorities of these crops were self-pollinating, and required less work on the part of the farmers. Unlike strawberries and other crops, these cereals and pulses could be preserved and consumed at a later date. Additionally, these crops provided more nourishment and energy to food producers, which in turn, led to increased production and diffusion of the crop out of the region. Possessing these desirable crops enabled members of the Fertile Crescent to gain a head start over other peoples because of their location, and before other areas were able to develop food production independently, it was already reaching them by diffusion.

“Just as some regions proved much more suitable than others for the origins of food production, the ease of its spread also varied greatly around the world” (Diamond 177). Extremely isolated areas, such as Australia, were last in acquiring food production. Likewise, most of the denizens of arid and arctic environments remained hunter-gatherers until modern times. The success of the itinerary that the domesticables would follow again depended on location. Those inhabiting Eurasia enjoyed the benefits of a major east to west axis. The relatively static climate throughout Eurasia allowed for the easy diffusion of crops throughout the continent (Diamond 183). Conversely, the diffusion of crops from north to south or vice versa often ended in failure resulting from drastic climate change. It was then out of pure circumstance that those inhabiting locations that supported the diffusion of crops, permitted them to enjoy the many benefits of food production. 

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Why is it that hunter-gatherers converted to farmer-herders?  Jared Diamond provided countless reasons in his book, Guns, Germs, and Steel.  The usual answer is that it is easier and less time consuming to produce your food than find it, but there is evidence that this may be untrue.  Diamond says, “Time budget studies show that they [farmer-herders] may spend more rather than fewer hours per day at work than hunter-gatherers do” (105).  In a previous blog, Agriculture: The Best Mistake in the History of the Human Race, I discussed how food production lowers living conditions for farmers, so what actually causes this change in philosophy?  Diamond suggests that there are five proximate causes for the development of food production: a decrease in wild foods, an increase in domesticable plants, the introduction of new technology, a rise in population density, and the spread of food production from other areas (110-112).  To fully comprehend the reason hunters changed from their lifestyle, we must take a closer look at the actual change.  Once we see how this change occurred, we can begin to understand why and what caused this change.

Let’s catapult back in time to 9000 B.C., before anyone had started food production.  A hunter-gatherer spends all day foraging through the forest, killing animals and picking roots, berries, and leaves that are edible.  Despite the common misconception, this human does not miraculously decide to stick the strawberry that he just picked in the middle of a field and water it.  No, instead he eats the strawberry, and some of the seeds pass through his digestive tract, getting planted in his waste.  The next year, he discovers a strawberry plant, ripe with fruit (115-117).  In this way, our hunter-gatherer has unconsciously started to become a food producer.  As food starts to become scarce (cause 1) because of an overpopulation of hunters (cause 4), our farmer realizes that he could increase his yield if he “planted” some of his berries in better spots.  Gradually, he plants more crops in his nomadic range (cause 2).  “Some modern nomads of New Guinea’s Lakes Plains make clearings in the jungle, plant bananas and papayas, go off for a few months to live again as hunter-gatherers, return to check on their crops, weed the garden if they find the crops growing, set off again to hunt, return months later to check again, and settle down for a while to harvest and eat if their garden has produced” (Diamond 106).  Through his planting of different crops, he will develop tools to help him harvest his crops (cause 3).  Finally the big day arrives, and the hunter-gatherer just decides not to move on.  The combination of his garden and wild foods has proved productive enough to feed him and his family for a whole year.  I’m not quite sure where he technically becomes a farmer-herder, but at this point he has definitely crossed the threshold, never to return to his hunter-ways.  Meanwhile, his neighbors see his success, and begin to try planting their own crop.  Thus, they become farmers as well (cause 5). 

Now that we have traced the beginning of food production, we see the true reason that hunters change to food production is because they are gradually forced to.  The hunters make decisions that lead to unknown consequences (106).  As shown above, all of Diamond’s proximate factors cause food production, so which one guarantees the rise of food production?  The answer is what happens first in the development process.  Food has to become scarce, otherwise the painstaking process of planting food to increase an areas yield would have been unnecessary.  As Diamond says, “People seek food in order to satisfy their hunger and fill their bellies.  They also crave specific foods. . .” (107). Without the hunter-gatherer requiring a certain food, he would never be driven to plant it.  Thus food production would never evolve, and the hunter would continue foraging.  But where did this decline come from?  Diamond suggests that the major cause of this drop is over-hunting, and he quickly implies a climate change (110).  This climate change, in the form of global warming, caused a loss of grassy plains.  In combination, human hunting and the climate caused a decrease in animal population, which facilitated the switch from the hunter-gatherer to the farmer-herder lifestyle (Laing).  Finally, without this initial development of food production, it would never spread to other areas.

The most important proximate cause of food production is the domestication of animals and plants. The benefits of animal domestication and herding help the hunter-gatherers. Through products such as meat, milk, and manure fertilization, the availability of calories are increased. This will then allow for more births in society. These births will lead to a larger population density. Also, storage for the extra food will be able to sustain the people. The animal fur provides warmth in order to withstand cold winters; the animals are also useful for transporting goods. A partial immunity developed from the animal derived germs, such as smallpox, measles, and the flu. This domestication helped hunter-gatherers to become more civilized as a society.
“At current rates…hunter-gatherer lifestyle.” Long ago, people relied on nomadic ways of hunting and herding. Today, however, food is produced by people themselves or by someone else (Diamond, 86).  The gradual change to another strategy was taken because of the decline in availability of wild fame, prestige, and technologies. Some animal resources became less abundant or even extinct. Wild game availability declined mainly because of the climate, and plant domestication became more rewarding. Technologies for collecting, processing, and storing wild foods also developed. This change in strategy did not happen all at once, but at a gradual pace.
The prosperity of food production also depended on the geography. The spread of food production in Eurasia was fast because of the climate, location, and disease conditions to migrants. However, the diffusion of food production differed greatly in the Americas, Africa, and New Guinea. The climate, deserts, diseases, and jungles made the spread of food production slower. The lack of the adaptation of domesticates slowed the diffusion in the New World. This is because of the continental differences in the axis orientation, latitude and longitude. Not only was food production affected, but also technology and writing. America’s song “America the Beautiful” refers more to Eurasia than the New World.

After reading Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, I believe the most contributory element that guaranteed the rise and spread of domesticables enabling food production was location. One key component of location was the availability of consumable calories in a given area. Only a small amount of wild plants were edible to humans. Some reasons why Diamond argues that certain plants were useless to humans were that they were “indigestible, poisonous, low in nutritional value, tedious to prepare, or dangerous to hunt” (88). There had to be a worthwhile quantity of edible food to make food production a viable option. For example, it made no sense to engage in food production if one expended more calories gathering the food than the actual food provided. The more abundant availability of food allowed for former hunter-gathers to change their ways and turn towards food production. Only with a surplus of food could people begin to settle in permanent villages and start to specialize and improve their farming tactics. When plants that pollinate themselves, “selfers”, were available, food production became a more feasible option. “Selfers” also occasionally cross-pollinated and allowed even more varieties for the people to select from (Diamond, 138). Yet another advantage in location were the number of annual plants. Annual plants are plants that follow a cycle of growing and dying each year. These plants provide a large quantity of consumable calories. In fact Diamond argues, “they constitute 6 of the modern world’s 12 major crops” (136). Annuals were great because unlike trees and shrubs the majority of them were edible (Diamond, 136). The availability of consumable calories definitely was needed to engage in food production; however, the growing conditions also had an enormous impact on the rise and spread of food production.

Location determines whether there are suitable conditions for growing necessary crops.  For instance, the location determines the climate of the environment. In the areas where the climate had a broad climate range such as, The Mediterranean climate, the growing ability of plants was easier. With the high diversity of climate there developed a high diversity of plants. For example, Diamond proves this point when he states, “the diversity in Eurasia allowed for it to contain 32 of the world’s 56 prize wild grasses” (139). The location also determines the range of altitudes and topographies within a short distance. A great range of altitude and topography was beneficial in making food production worthwhile. With mountains, lowlands, rivers, flood plains, and deserts suitable for irrigation a variety of plants could be grown. Among this variety were the essential eight founder crops; they were called founder crops because they were the spark that inspired agriculture. These included cereals emmer wheat, einkon wheat, and barley; the pulses lentil, pea, chickpea, and bitter vetch; and the fiber crop flax. Jared explains that some of the eight founder crops could only grow in certain parts of the world. In fact two out of the eight founder crops could only have grown in the Fertile Crescent. Jared proves through these statistics that the right location made a large impact on agriculture and food production. Without the founder crops the hunter gatherers might never have learned the methods for starting food production (Diamond, 141). Location also determines the axis configuration. Continents that had an East-West axis had a simpler ease at spreading food production; An East-West axis allowed for similar climates; therefore, crops could easily be transported to nearby countries. Also Diamond argues, “the growing season- that is, the months with temperatures and day lengths suitable for plant growth – is shortest at high latitude and longest toward the equator.” In this statement Diamond proves that location had a large impact on whether or not food production was a viable option. Suitable growing conditions based on location were necessary to allow food production, but the number of domesticable animals also was a large factor.

Location seems to have determined the number of domesticable animals on certain continents. Domesticated animals, in turn, helped guarantee the rise and spread of food production. For example, Eurasia held 72 domesticatable animals and 13 of them were able to be domesticated; Eurasia held the largest percentage of candidates to actually be domesticated. The fact that Eurasia’s location enabled it to have a large landmass and a diverse environment represents a major reason why so many domesticatable animals were found in Eurasia. For an animal to become domesticated it must have all the needed qualities; Eurasia held the most candidates. The importance of location on animal domestication can also be seen in the number of animals that were able to survive traumatic environmental changes. Diamond states, “Part of the explanation for Eurasia’s having been the main site of big mammal domestication is that is was the continent with the most candidate species of wild mammals to start out with, and lost the least candidates to extinction in the last 40,000 years” (163). Domestic animals allowed farmers to remain sedentary and still consume a healthy amount of animal protein in their diet. Keeping domestic animals replaced the need to hunt for wild game and they were able to be used as a source of food throughout their whole lifespan. For example, certain animals could provide milk or eggs which were calories that could be consumed with little effort. Diamond argues, “Those mammals served several times more calories over their lifetime than if they were just slaughtered and consumed as meat” (88).  This sedentary life gave farmers the opportunity to have more children, thus creating a denser population. This dense population then allowed for specialized professions, especially specialization in food production (Diamond, 89). Another way domestic animals aided in the adoption of food production was that the animals provided manure which was and still is a major source of fertilizer. Diamond stated domestic animals supplied a labor force for tasks such as “pulling plows and thereby making it possible for people to till land that had previously been uneconomical for farming.” Location, location, location was a major factor that allowed food production to transpire.

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Part 2 , chapters 4 through 10, examines the rise and spread of food production, noting many proximate causes of food production.  Which ONE proximate cause is the most important contributory element that guarantees the rise and spread of domesticables enabling food production?

Required Components:
*3 paragraphs of 8 sentences minimum
*1 direct quotation from the text in each paragraph (include internal citation)
*1 paraphrase of the text in each paragraph (include internal citation)
*2 links in paragraphs 2 and 3 to online sources that establish firmly your thesis statement (always 1 concept)

Extra Credit Option 1:
*Create a Blinklist account (free, fast, easy) at home (blocked at school because of proxy settings) and include 5 pieces of solid research about the rise of food production that supports your thesis; tag your research GGS
*When you have completed tagging your GGS research, do an internal search inside Blinklist for GGS; all your new research for GGS will appear together; use this URL to link to Extra Credit Blinklist
*On your blog, label your extra credit work Extra Credit Blinklist; link your GGS URL to Extra Credit Blinklist
*If you already have a Blinklist account, you will simply follow the same directions for tagging your GGS research and linking your GGS URL to Extra Credit Blinklist on your blog
*If you have a del.icio.us or diigo account, you would follow the same directions for tagging and use your GGS URL to link to Extra Credit del.icio.us (or Extra Credit diigo) on your blog

Extra Credit: Option 2:
*Create a survey (include 5 content-based questions) using Quimble or PollDaddy.  Click here to learn more about both survey options. (The link will take you to Discovery Education’s Digital Passports, and you are looking for the blog entitled: Audience Participation Required: Online Polls).

*Your final edited test is due 3-21 by 8:00 AM.