The Next Species: The Future of Evolution in the Aftermath of Man by Michael Tennesen
Authors: Michael Tennesen
Ads: Link
twentieth century, and Queen Victoria knighted Lawes and Gilbert for their agricultural innovation and the benefits their work with fertilizers had brought to UK farmers. Rothamsted Manor, in the center of the fields, has now become a boardinghouse for visiting scientists from around the world. This research station still studies various fertilizers but also looks at refining crops for energy production along with the long-term effects of pesticides, herbicides, and genetic modification.
The agricultural history of the last 160 years is written in the samples of soils, crops, fertilizers, and manures that the research station keeps in its“sample archive,” where we see indications of increased production after the green revolution as well as evidence of the rise of pollution and fallout from Chernobyl in that same period. This portends poorly for man, because agricultural scientists hope soil will play a big part in doubling food production over the next several decades. We would need to double the amount of crops if we are to have enough grain on the table, feed in the barn, and biofuel in the tank in the future for man to keep going. A polluted and depleted soil report is not a healthy place from which to launch this increase in production, particularly as this may be only the first in a line of requests for more grain. The UN reports that we’ll probably be pushing the limits of agricultural production into the next century.
To discuss the future of man and agriculture, we need to go back and take a closer look at the history of this relationship. At the end of the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago, as we entered the present interglacial period, the planet got warmer, rains fell more frequently, and plants grew bigger and faster than they had in over 100,000 years. Along the way, man realized thattending plants was easier than hunting game. The push in this direction may have come as man encountered lower populations of game or even extinctions of some key animals brought on by the development of human hunting skills.
The first evidence of domesticated wheat and barley appeared around 9500 BC , and shortly thereafter legumes such as lentils and peas. Farms were present first in the Fertile Crescent of western Asia. The idea quickly caught on, spreading to Egypt and India by 7000 BC , and gradually moved into Europe. Rice and millet started popping up in China around this time.
Man began to domesticate animals about the same time he domesticated plants. Goats were tamed around 10,000 BC in Iran and sheep around 9000 BC in Iraq. Cattle appeared around 6000 BC in India and in the Middle East. Agriculture spread more slowly over the northern and southern climates. It arrived even later among New World natives. Yet American Indians discovered maize and potatoes, some of the most important domestic plants in the world today.
Farming produced up to a hundred times more calories per acre than foraging, but it came at a cost to the health of new farmers. Hunter-gatherers rarely suffered from vitamin deficiencies, but farmers got scurvy, rickets, and beriberi because their diets were so base and unvaried. Infant mortality rose, also likely from poor diet. It seems that less protein, fewer vitamins, higher carbohydrates, and less movement were not what the doctor ordered. Humans who began to rely on agriculture shrank in height by almost five inches. Polynesians, American Indians, and Australian aborigines developed type 2 diabetes from their new high-carbohydrate diet and suffered a higher incidence of alcoholism. Alcohol consumption followed the growth of agriculture. There is some thought that barley was first domesticated for brewing beer rather than making bread. Tending crops, it appears, aroused a farmer’s thirst.
Eventually, agriculture did result in larger populations, which led to the establishment of governments to protect and distribute grain, resulting in less fighting and longer lives. About nine thousand
The agricultural history of the last 160 years is written in the samples of soils, crops, fertilizers, and manures that the research station keeps in its“sample archive,” where we see indications of increased production after the green revolution as well as evidence of the rise of pollution and fallout from Chernobyl in that same period. This portends poorly for man, because agricultural scientists hope soil will play a big part in doubling food production over the next several decades. We would need to double the amount of crops if we are to have enough grain on the table, feed in the barn, and biofuel in the tank in the future for man to keep going. A polluted and depleted soil report is not a healthy place from which to launch this increase in production, particularly as this may be only the first in a line of requests for more grain. The UN reports that we’ll probably be pushing the limits of agricultural production into the next century.
To discuss the future of man and agriculture, we need to go back and take a closer look at the history of this relationship. At the end of the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago, as we entered the present interglacial period, the planet got warmer, rains fell more frequently, and plants grew bigger and faster than they had in over 100,000 years. Along the way, man realized thattending plants was easier than hunting game. The push in this direction may have come as man encountered lower populations of game or even extinctions of some key animals brought on by the development of human hunting skills.
The first evidence of domesticated wheat and barley appeared around 9500 BC , and shortly thereafter legumes such as lentils and peas. Farms were present first in the Fertile Crescent of western Asia. The idea quickly caught on, spreading to Egypt and India by 7000 BC , and gradually moved into Europe. Rice and millet started popping up in China around this time.
Man began to domesticate animals about the same time he domesticated plants. Goats were tamed around 10,000 BC in Iran and sheep around 9000 BC in Iraq. Cattle appeared around 6000 BC in India and in the Middle East. Agriculture spread more slowly over the northern and southern climates. It arrived even later among New World natives. Yet American Indians discovered maize and potatoes, some of the most important domestic plants in the world today.
Farming produced up to a hundred times more calories per acre than foraging, but it came at a cost to the health of new farmers. Hunter-gatherers rarely suffered from vitamin deficiencies, but farmers got scurvy, rickets, and beriberi because their diets were so base and unvaried. Infant mortality rose, also likely from poor diet. It seems that less protein, fewer vitamins, higher carbohydrates, and less movement were not what the doctor ordered. Humans who began to rely on agriculture shrank in height by almost five inches. Polynesians, American Indians, and Australian aborigines developed type 2 diabetes from their new high-carbohydrate diet and suffered a higher incidence of alcoholism. Alcohol consumption followed the growth of agriculture. There is some thought that barley was first domesticated for brewing beer rather than making bread. Tending crops, it appears, aroused a farmer’s thirst.
Eventually, agriculture did result in larger populations, which led to the establishment of governments to protect and distribute grain, resulting in less fighting and longer lives. About nine thousand
Similar Books
