Food ProductionGuns, Germs, & Steel

Anecdote Diamond tells a story about working on a farm in

southwestern Montana: He worked with a Native American named Levi on a farm

owned by Fred Hirschy. While Levi was a nice quiet man Diamond was surprised

one day when Levi showed up drunk and cursed the farmer “and damn the ship that brought you from Switzerland.”

Diamond points out that Levi’s people had been robbed of their land by farmers like Hirschy. How did farmers win out of seasoned warriors like the

Native Americans?

Early Humans Early Humans fed themselves exclusively by

hunting and gathering food from the wild. Only within the last 11,000 years did people

start food production by domesticating animals and plants.

Most people on earth today eat food that they produce themselves or was produced for them.

In the next few years the bands of hunter-gathers will most likely die out.

Plants & Animals During the hunter-gatherer days many of the plants

found in the wild were inedible for the following reasons: Indigestible: bark Poisonous: monarch butterflies Tedious to prepare: small nuts Difficult to gather: larvae Dangerous to hunt: rhinos

By selectively farming those that we can consume on 90% of the land we can obtain more edible calories per acre.

What Food Means More edible calories mean:

1 acre can feed 10-100 times more than hunter-gathers

Military power: more food means more military strength, meaning agricultural societies had a greater chance of survival over hunter-gatherers in a conflict.

Domestic Animals Domesticated Animals fed more people in 4

ways Meat Milk Fertilizer Pulling plows

Replaced wild game with domesticated meats as the most prominent source of protein.

Milk Domestic animals also provide sources of milk

as well as butter, cheese, and yogurt. Cow, sheep, goat, horse, reindeer, water buffalo,

yak, and camels. These mammals provide many more calories

than animals killed for meat alone.

Agriculture Domestic Animals helped with crop production in

several ways. Manure: applying manure as fertilizer helps yield large

increases in crops. It was also a source of fuel for fires. Plows: large domestic animals help with plowing fields

and prepping soil they would otherwise not be able to use. Cows, horses, water buffalo, Bali cattle, and yak/cow

hybrids. All these are ways that domestication of plants and

animals led to a more dense human population.

Indirect Ways The consequences of the sedentary lifestyle

were less direct on the density of human populations. Hunter-gatherer societies moved constantly,

thereby making the time between childbirth much greater. (On average 4 years between children.)

The reason for this being that children had to be able to keep up on their own before a mother could concern herself with carrying another child in addition to her belongings.

Birth Control Hunter-gatherers, in order maintain a 4 year

space between children, would often ensure the lack of accidental babies by the following methods: Lactational amenorrhea Sexual abstinence Infanticide Abortion

Sedentary Farmers In contrast to the H-G families, sedentary families

had no need for those forms of birth control. Since their children needn’t be carried on long

journeys they were able to have as many children, as close together, as they could feed.

The typical birth interval for those families was around 2 years, half that of H-G families.

This change had an enormous impact on the population density.

Food Storage Another consequence of the settled lifetsyle

was the ability to store and protect food. As a H-G an excess of food would need to be

eaten or gotten rid of because it could not be protected in the long term.

As a sedentary society food could be stored and protected causing occupations that are not food based to prosper. Kings, bureaucrats, specialists.

Egalitarian Society Most H-G societies were egalitarian and little or

very small scale political organization. This was predominantly because any able-bodied

person was needed for hunter or gathering. However, once food can be saved AND kept from

harm a political elite can emerge. Those people, not needing to worry about

sustenance, can begin the political activities of taxation, land acquisition, etc.

Chiefdoms to Kingdoms

Small agricultural communities evolved into small chiefdoms where there was a minor area to control.

Even these small societies were much better equipped to defend themselves against attack, or even to participate in a sustained war.

Very rich environment tended to grow in to kingdoms who were even better equipped militarily.

Livestock Domesticating livestock had more uses than

simple food production and population increase.

They also provided warmth in the form of textiles and clothing.

Horses also became one of the main sources of land transportation until the invention of the railway.

Unfortunately they were also the catalyst for many diseases, including smallpox, measles, and flu.

Haves and Have Notes If you were to look a map showing the first

places of agricultural production in the world it would be surprising that so many rich lands were not used until much much MUCH later.

While food production began in 4000 b.c. the rich soils in California and the Pacific coast weren’t cultivated until the arrival of Europeans.

Animals It is also interesting to point out that many of

those same places chose not to domesticate animals on their own, but bring domesticated animals in from other places.

Weren’t these places equally likely to develop agriculture and livestock on their own without outside assistance?

Size & Archeology Archeologists can determine whether or not a

society had domesticated animals and plants in a few ways. Domesticated cattle and sheep are smaller Chicken and apples are larger Peas have a thinner and smoother coating Domesticated goats have corkscrew twisted

horns

Why? One of the questions that is often asked is why some

food are cultivated for domestication and some are not. Almonds, in the wild, actually contain cyanide and

deadly poison. Some almonds have a mutation making them less

bitter and without the gene that breaks down into cyanide.

When birds and eventually farmers discovered this non-bitter almond they started eating them or accidentally planting them in trash heaps.

Other Poisonous Plants

Almonds aren’t the only poisonous plant that was eventually cultivated to be a delicious treat.

Others include: Lima beans Watermelons Potatoes Egg plants And cabbages

One of the ways these non-poisonous versions were cultivated was through the excrement of humans and animals.

Seedless Fruit Another change in food production from human

involvement is the advent of seedlessness. Original fruits of all forms for homes for seeds and a

method of distribution. Once humans started eating things like squash and

pumpkin they tried to cultivate only varieties that have a higher flesh to seed ratio.

In modern times seedless grapes, oranges, and watermelons are examples of how fruit no longer serves its original purpose.

Qualities There were a few qualities that farmers looked for in crops to

grow: Fruit Size (large apples) Bitterness (non-poisonous almonds) Fleshiness (pumpkins) Oiliness (olives) And Fiber Length (cotton) Farmers would only harvest and then plant seeds that had

these qualities, cultivating fruit that would continue to be desirable.