Agriculture

Agriculture

Jared Diamond’s article, The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race, takes an interesting look at agriculture. The advent of agriculture has many times been heralded as a wonderful invention that saved many people from starvation, and it is also credited as playing a huge role in the development of civilization. However, Diamond’s point of view is quite the opposite, so after reading Diamond’s article, the reader is left with the question of whether or not the development of agriculture was truly the best course for the human race. In order to better understand the controversy surrounding agriculture, it is necessary to examine some of the facts that have been more recently discovered in connection with agriculture.

From the progressivist perspective, “agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work” (Diamond). Thus, progressivists claim that the lives of primitive people improved with they switched from gathering to farming. Certainly, no one can argue that planted crops yield far more tons of produce per acre than the natural roots and berries that grow naturally on a given piece of ground. Also, since it takes less time to gather food out of a garden, and since that food can be stored for future use, agriculture gave man more free time. In this free time man was able to develop many other things such as art, music, etc. In addition, agriculture allowed man to stop wandering and live in one location, so the development of communities and cities was possible. This led the human race to civilization. All of these examples used by progressivists make it seem like agriculture is a wonderful development. However, as Diamond points out, it is difficult to prove these claims, and actually, evidence exists which refutes these claims (Diamond).

Modern hunters are an example of indirect evidence which refutes progressivists’ claims concerning agriculture. For example, the Kalahari Bushman support themselves using...