Agriculture: The Best Mistake in the History of the Human Race
In Jared Diamond’s article, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” he argues that the adoption of agriculture as the primary method of garnering nutrition is the worst mistake that humans have ever made. He sights the substantial loss in health directly after the conversion from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle as the primary support that agriculture is a mistake. He goes on to explain that there are three reasons that agriculture is bad for the overall health of farmers: farmers concentrate on starchy crops, risk starvation because of the limited number of crops, and live in concentrated societies. Diamond also states that agriculture is a mistake because it creates an elite upper class and inequality between the sexes.
Although Diamond provides substantial evidence for the loss of health caused by agriculture, cultivation facilitated tremendous advances in the overall health of humans. Today, farming provides varied foods well beyond what a single environment can sustain. Grocery stores provide produce from around the world that is high in vitamins, minerals, and other nutritious elements. The volume of crops stocking the shelves of the common supermarket ensures that no single crop failure will leave thousands starving. Hunter-gatherers in a desert could never harvest star-fruit, apples, and fish in their ecosystem, but agriculture has provided them with all of these crops and made their same produce available to the world.
Diamond considers the rise of a non-farming elite to be a downfall, but I see this as one of the many advantages provided by farming. These elite, which by definition include the modern middle class, initiated many advances in society as a whole, like the formation of government, scientific research, and the advancement of the arts. By decreasing the time needed to find food, agricultural societies can support non-farming citizens who begin filling the above roles. Scientific research facilitated the creation of drugs to fight the epidemics and other problems caused by food production.
It is inarguable that directly after the change to agriculture, the health of humans as a whole decreased. It is also indisputable that life for the newly created farmers required more work under harder conditions than their hunter-gatherer neighbors, but in the long run, life for farmers improved more rapidly than for hunter-gatherers. Farmers produced new technology and improved their methods of farming. Today, intense agriculture entails about a quarter of the population, 27%, farming to provide food for the remainder. This means more elites and increased advancement of the sciences and arts. While I admit that originally agriculture was a mistake, destroying the health of most farmers and causing many adverse effects, in the long run, it became a blessing, creating vast opportunities for the human race.
“Diamond also states that agriculture is a mistake because it creates an elite upper class and inequality between the sexes.”
Let’s forego the gender issue for a moment, and look at the elite upper class statement. For the sake of argument, is it not the elite upper class that can shop the opportunity that Wegman’s affordances provide? Last time I looked, and thankfully, that was another life ago, my old neighborhood on Gordon Street, near 7th in the Old Allentown district, was not shopping in a Wegman-like environment. Care to comment? Is Diamond really wrong in his context? Just asking.
First off, by Jared Diamond’s definition of elite, only 27% of the US population today falls into this category. I would make the argument that no one in today’s society is a true farmer-herder, because almost every farmer in the modern world grows one crop that is then sold to other people. This is not the subsistence farming that occupied the human race for a long time.
But let’s overlook this fact and take a closer look at any person who takes a trip to the store. He probably gets in his car, which was manufactured by non-food-producing elite, listens to music on the radio that an elite disc jockey plays and a singer produces. When he finally gets to the store, he walks into a building that many construction workers assembled. He then pays for his goods, that have been packaged by an elite, and part of that price is a tax that goes to the government. This government protects his rights and property, as well as protects him from foreign elite.
All around people in the modern world is the evidence of the power of food production. A majority never even see any part in the production of food except for the path from the package to the table. Modern society gets to enjoy the benefits of food production without the wide-spread societal-split present right after the change from hunter-gatherer. We enjoy the art, inventions, and protection of the “elite,” while most have joined this elite. To fully appreciate some of the lesser known benefits of food production, visit http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/programs_mba.html.
When reading this post, I took a step back, and tried to imagine the benefits of agriculture in other parts of the world, rather than living here comfortably in the United States. What would the benefits be for rice farmers on the steep terraces in China, or the farmer in South Africa? While agriculture has undoubtedly left me and you and millions of others living here for the better, what about the indirect effects of agriculture? Sure, nobody can deny that we live healthier lives due to better, more nutritious food and a wide variety of it, (http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/vegetables_why.html) but who has been healthier due to wars that agriculture enabled? Who can say that their lives have improved after having their village or country for that matter plundered and destroyed? Diamond oversteps the issue and makes it a broad, overarching statement, where it should be more confining. It is not agriculture that is the worst mistake in all of human history. It is not benefiting from advancements agriculture provides that is the worst mistake for a society.
Nice writing, Colin! I am not familiar with Diamond’s ideas so it probably wouldn’t be wise for me to jump into the conversation. But I’d encourage you to find something you’re passionate about and start blogging about it. You’ve got a nice blogging style and a logical sense of argument. Was this assignment a good experience?
Colin, I just want to let you know that I truly enjoyed reading your blog. In addition, I am impressed by the reader responses and dialogue generated by your ideas. Learning in the 21st century is an exciting venture when the walls of physical location and roles have been eliminated so that true conversation can occur. You have much to offer. Keep publishing your ideas to a larger context.
I would like to thank everyone for the positive feedback. It’s great to hear from someone outside of the classroom community. This project takes learning to a whole new level. You can learn from not only your teacher and peers, but also anyone out there in cyber world that is interested in your work. It opens the classroom far beyond the walls of a typical school.
The other day I was taking the PSSA’s, and one of the reading passages was about a Harvard professor that is inventing products for third world countries. She contrasted a supermarket, with its plethora of food, to the primitive farmers of Africa and their shortage of food. Third world farmers literally live on the verge of starvation. Just one drought or severe storm could spell disaster.
I realized that this is the true miracle of food production. After the initial change from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, food production allows farmers to produce a surplus of food, which can be stored for later use. Food production allows farmers the security of this stockpile. Established farmers can survive a drought on their stored food, while hunter-gatherers will die because they have no surplus.
So while farmers risk large wars and disease, they gain something much more valuable: the security of a surplus. Hunter-gatherers run the risk of running out of food, getting killed while hunting, or becoming injured. A hunter just cannot afford some of the setbacks that a farmer can. This security is what makes food production worth the risk.
I would just like to add a few thoughts to this article. I stand by my original conclusions. The switch to an agricultural society was a benefit. It provided humans (and indeed many of our farm animals) with a remarkable advantage over hunter-gatherers. We have all but stopped the massive famines that were so devastating to hunter-gatherers by stockpiling food. Farming has allowed for society as we know it to evolve.
However, a new topic has come to my attention. There are frightening consequences of our switch to farming, things that cannot be readily seen. For example, much of our diet today IS NOT the variety that one would think. While it is true that farming, when combined with transportation, has opened our diets to food from around the world (like tomatoes in winter!!), we have simultaneously DECREASED the variety of food that we eat. How, you may ask? Just take a look at the package of chips you are eating right now while reading this. It is made almost entirely of corn. One single crop provides us with a majority of our calories. Corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, fructose; all of these products are made by processed corn. Corn provides the base of our modern food pyramid.
If your reply is “But I eat healthy! I stay away from processed foods.” Unless you are a vegetarian, the meat that you eat is actually fed with corn. That’s right, the cows, which naturally eat grasses, are now fed with corn!
If you are interested in more on this topic, I suggest you read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan. He examines far more in depth the modern food chain and the food of hunter-gatherers, farmers, and industrial farmers (the food that appears on most American’s tables).
I can only conclude one thing, while the initial switch to farming was good, and for many years provided a very healthy, stable diet; the modern diet is incredibly bad. While we have increased our population, learned so many new things, and advanced technically, we feed ourselves with “junk food” far beyond the common potato chips. Perhaps, for modern civilization, farming was the worst mistake ever. We have opened a can of worms that threatens to destroy the human race in so many ways!
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