permaculture

["E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>]

Seems to me that the evolution of agriculture would have been a pretty 
natural thing for early Man.  They would have tried, just as we do, to "help 
Nature along" in order to make food easier to find.  Everything else that has 
happened since has been a pretty natural progression, given our penchant for 
acting in our own perceived best interest.  Except some folks are better at 
it than others.

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Sean Maley 
  To: permaculture 
  Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 1:33 PM
  Subject: Re: [permaculture] Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point


  --- Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com> wrote:
  > Ah, I see Sean has addressed this nicely. Again, see Jared Diamond's "The
  > Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" at
  > http://www.mnforsustain.org/food_ag_worst_mistake_diamond_j.htm

  Thank you for the kudos.  I do want to point out a distinction between 
Jared Diamond and Daniel
  Quinn, though.  Jared Diamond posits that larger populations forced people 
into farming.  Daniel
  Quinn posits that a farming experiment, for whatever reason it was 
attempted, resulted in a
  temporary food surplus, which in turn caused the constant acceleration of 
population of about 2%
  per year.

  Some have speculated that beer was invented, which became a reason to 
create a surplus;  the "big
  man" theory of chiefs trying to out do each other with feasts.  Where most 
experiments with
  "civilization" failed, the one in North Africa and the "Fertile Crescent" 
were able to spread to
  adjacent lands, as soil fertility declined.  The endless race, creating 
more food for the poor,
  began.  I'm interested to find a study on how long it took for slavery to 
emerge after agriculture
  began.  Agriculture in this context means "the culture of civilization".


  -Sean.

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