Jared Diamond: Does Agriculture Make Life Better?

The emergence of agriculture was a major stepping stone in human history. During this birth of agriculture, also known as the Neolithic revolution, humans began inhabiting permanent settlements, grow their own crops, and domesticate both plants and animals for food (Weisdorf, 2005). Considering humans have been hunter-gatherers for the majority of their approximately 7 million years of existence, the emergence of agriculture in the Old World only occurring 10,000-5,000 years ago, marks a significant transformation in food sustenance techniques (Weisdorf, 2005). However, this turning point in history is associated with both positive and negative implications. There is much controversy over whether or not the introduction of

Agriculture has long been the foundation of economy and society, especially during the time as early as in the Middle Ages. As the foundation of agriculture, corn production was the most important agricultural activity at the time.

“The discovery of agriculture was the first big step toward a civilized life.” (Arthur Keith)

Jared Diamond, in his article, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human race”, explains that the worst mistake that humans made was the decision to change from a hunter gatherer society into an agriculture society. Jared Diamond gives evidence of how switching from an agricultural society was a bad mistake. Many believe that adopting an agricultural society and leaving the hunter gatherer society was the way to a more qualitative and sustainable lifestyle. As Diamond says, it is true that because this society was adopted and evolved because we have longer lifespans and live better now than how people lived back in the old days. But Diamond`s claim that the hunter gatherer society gave humans more benefits individually than what the agricultural society had to offer is agreeable.

Diamond explains that our worst mistake was the transition from hunter-gathers to farmers. Diamond believes that humans were better off chasing our food rather than planting it due to the consequences that followed after such a dramatic change of life. His reasoning expands further out than one might think of about this subject. He talks about the social changes that were created when agriculture began. Diamond spews empowering points that leave a reader pondering if he is correct. People are only sure of how the world is now but the possibilities are endless on what our world could have been if agriculture had not begun.

Hunter- gatherers was able to consume many variety of foods, such as animals meat, berries, nuts, roots etc which are high in proteins and fiber. Farmers can only consume the crops they grew, which is limited. Additionally, the main commonly crops are rice, corn, and wheat, which is high in carbs and lacked fiber, vitamins, and proteins. As a result, farmers’ diet consists of carbs and fats, but no vitamins or proteins. The second risk is limited crop production. Farmers are easily opened to risk of starvation if their crops fail to grow. The final risk to agriculture is epidemic diseases. Agricultural encouraged farmers to get together in crowded societies in order to trade their crops, which can easily lead to spread of contagious diseases and

The Neolithic Revolution brought about deep class divisions, which meant that there were social classes during the neolithic revolution. People were divided based on their position in society at that time and these customs have been passed down to human society today. In the article “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” by Jared Diamond, it states “royals enjoyed a better diet...and had better teeth.” Royals or people who were higher up in society were taller and had less cavities, which means they had enough food to eat, and were also eating well. The higher ranking members of societies ate the

Since the beginning of human development humans have been revolving around agriculture. It is known that, “Archaeologists and palaeontologists have traced the origins of farming to around 10,000 years ago” (Mason). This is truly remarkable to believe that the revolution as a whole may pivot on this period so long ago. Once this happened agriculture began popping up all around the ancient world spreading like wildfire. This planting of crops and domestication of animals allowed people to develop specialization because not everyone had to forage anymore. This allowed

Based on the output of production, agriculture is perceived as an advance because farmers can produce more food within a smaller area than they could possibly obtain as hunter-gatherers. Harris says that this situation happened since farmers control “the rate of plant reproduction” (Harris 219), which means that immediate adverse consequences could be prevented with the intensification of production. On the other hand, hunter-gatherers, which depend on the availability of natural plants and animals; consequently, can raise their output very little. However, although farmers can produce more food than hunter-gatherers do, the numbers of crops are limited; therefore, when the crops failed, there is risk of starvation.

health. Hunter-gatherers have a varied diet, however, early farmers gained poor nutrition and cheap calories. In addition, farmers ran the risk of starvation due to the dependence on crops. Diamond states that agriculture encouraged the creation of civilizations, which then led to the spread of infectious diseases and parasites that can seriously jeopardize our health. Social inequality between deep class divisions came out of agriculture as well. According to research on skeletons from ancient times, royals had better diets than the commoners due to the fact that they were a few inches taller and had better teeth than them. Thus, Jared Diamond supports his claim that agriculture was a terrible mistake made in human history due to inequality, bad health, and a difference in lifestyles between hunter-gatherers and

The first reason of why agriculture is a better way of life, is because according to document 1 farmers were less violent. Hunters and gatherers on the other hand were in constant state of tribal warfare. This resulted in 25-30% of adult males dying from homicide. Warfare was necessary to keep population density low. This was due to the fact that a certain place only had so much food to support one person. Farmers on the other hand could use a small piece of land and plant crops that could support many people. They do not have to fight over food therefore less war and violence.

Agriculture is the main reason we have civilization today, for without food surplus people would spend their days finding food and water constantly. Native Americans started like all other people in the world, doing just that, until over time they turned food production into an art. Without the elaborate specialization of crops over time, people would not have reached the point that they had before the Europeans had arrived. The allowance of food surplus led to the ability to advance culturally, scientifically, and economically.

For instance, “…agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work. Planted crops yield far more tons per acre than roots and berries” (64). Diamond is claiming that society abandoned traditional foods consumed by hunter-gatherers because it was easier to feed more people if nutrition was sacrificed. The necessity to feed more people at a low cost provoked the decision to choose calories over nutrition. In other words, society chose agriculture over the hunter-gatherer method.

In the 1930's, V. Gordon Childe proposed that the shift to food production was one of the two major events in human history that improved the condition of human societies. Childe described the origins of agriculture as a 哲eolithic Revolution.But the shift from hunting and gathering to food production was not as advantageous to humanity as Childe believed. Although there were benefits, there were also serious drawbacks, and humans paid a price for the advantages of agriculture.

Those people who live in these conditions can have better diets and live healthier because of agri-business. The transformation from traditional farming to agri-business became rapidly accepted by all types of farmers because of the mass benefits agri-business provides. Berry noticed this transformation by stating, “This transformation occurred with astonishing speed because, by the measures it set for itself, it was wonderfully successful. It ‘saved labor’” (Berry, 2005, para. 4). This transformation increased the speed of farms. This means the increased speed also decreased the work effort; which allows farmers to do twice as much work without increasing the effort. The transition from traditional farming to agri-business has increased the production load to where agri-business can support the needs of the world.