IP Blog

Out of the several proximate causes ultimately responsible for the rise and spread of food production, the single most important is the domestication of wild plants and animals. Society relied on animals for food such as meat and milk for survival. If the population is fed, the population can grow (calories=creation, no calories=malnutrition). Not only did some animals provide nourishment, but they also offered easier, faster travel and labor. Their natural fertilizer was extremely crucial for the domestication of wild plants. The ways of the hunter-gatherers died out after a period of time, and the lifestyle of farmer-herders took over. Diamond suggests that hunter-gatherers relied on hunting wild animals and gathering wild plants whereas farmer-herders relied on domesticating wild animals and plants and eating the resulting livestock and crops (86). By comparing the two, the lifestyle of farmer-herders proves to be a more successful and reliable existence. Diamond says, “Today most people on Earth consume food that they produced themselves or that someone else produced for them” (86).

Among the many species of wild plants and animals, a small minority is edible or worth obtaining; most species are useless to society for many reasons--they are “indigestible, poisonous, low in nutritional value, tedious to prepare, difficult to gather, or dangerous to hunt” (Diamond, 88). Once the farmer-herders established domesticating certain animals and plants useful to humans, it ensured them a sedentary, yet reliable existence. Unlike farmer-herders, hunter-gatherers live day by day, eating what they can find in the wilderness. Their nomadic ways disintegrated and proved to be extremely unreliable. Diamond argues, “In human societies possessing domestic animals, livestock fed more people in four distinct ways: by furnishing meat, milk, and fertilizer and by pulling plows” (88). These four ways benefited farmer-herders more than hunter-gatherers. Today, farmers have technological equipment in order to improve their work, but they have to avoid many negative setbacks such as water pollution, soil erosion, pesticide residues, etc. 

Overall, the domestication of wild plants and animals directly increased population rates and life expectancy considering the simple concept, calories=creation. More and more farmer-herders settlements were established over time. Americans today tend to get most of their protein, an essential nutrient for human growth and development, from cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens. Domestic milked mammals such as the cow, sheep, goat, horse, etc, provide milk products such as butter, cheese, and yogurt (Diamond, 88). The fact that hunter-gatherers are constantly traveling poses a major disadvantage. A hunter-gatherer mother can only carry one child and few possessions; they space their children about four years apart. This restriction hindered their ability to obtain a densely populated society. Due to farmer-herders sedentary lifestyle, they were able to establish this type of society. Diamond says, “Sedentary people, unconstrained by problems of carrying young children on treks, can bear and raise as many children as they can feed” (89). As the farmer-herders continued to grow in population, their ways of food production was spread throughout the world.