permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>]

On Nov 17, 2011, at 9:37 AM, Dieter Brand wrote:

> The argument about the superior health of the hunter gatherers is probably 
> exaggerated or based on a small statistical base of a few archeological 
> finds.

See Jared Diamond's article, "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human 
Race."
http://www.ditext.com/diamond/mistake.html

or mine, "Is Sustainable Agriculture an Oxymoron?"
http://www.patternliteracy.com/203-is-sustainable-agriculture-an-oxymoron

Not exaggerated. Essentially all the data available show that the shift to 
agriculture resulted in a huge spike in epidemic disease, shorter lifespan, 
shrinkage in stature (suggesting poorer nutrition), tooth and bone problems, 
arthritis, etc. There aren't a lot of sites, it's true, probably no more than 
40 or so that cover the transition, but they all show the same thing 
consistently. We paid a huge price nutritionally for the shift to agriculture 
(not to mention the loss of freedom, which is far more significant to me).

Okay, I really am procrastinating on writing a tough section of the patterns 
book. Back to it!

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com