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  • From: Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Humus
  • Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:06:54 -0800


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






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