Food and Economics continued

Makes you more vulnerable to weather patterns, and disaster in general

You are dependent on a comparatively, extremely limited roster of food supplies

Farmers are at the mercy of time, having to gather the huge majority of their annual nutritional intake at, at most, a few times; nothing, thus, can interrupt these narrow windows of time

Agriculture is extraordinarily scheduled

e.g. clearing land of vegetation, stones, etc; fertilizationFar beyond what foragers have to do

Farming is a lot of work, requiring intense and sustained physical effort throughout the year

A strategy to defend food from pests, moisture, thieves, etc

A new, delayed return relationship with food

A strategy for measuring out supplies to last the year, plus extra for planting in the following year

Foragers don't typically have any incentive to store food, nor any to refrain from

Storage: how to keep food edible and in sufficient supply for the rest of the year

Other challenges; not problems necessarily, but things that must be managed

Much more food can be obtained per unit of land than foraging; this can be controlled as well

Some farming populations developed immunity to certain pathogens in response to this; people were changed genetically (by farming)

Communicable and epidemic diseases due to more people, and people living in closer proximity

Denser populations (and persistent contact with animals) have significant implications as well

Much denser populations can be supported than in foraging; villages/cities can now be supported; much larger families [literally] grow out of this

With agriculture comes the possibility for surplus food production

A result of many of the aboveGene spread, genetic resistance, adult lactose tolerance, etc

Agriculture has been the most important cause of changes in human gene frequencies in the past 10k years, by far

The way you obtain food totally shapes the way you live

Ramifications of producing your own food, versus foraging

There isn't a single clear answer, but a variety of hypothesesWith farming, you can increase the availability of more palatable food

Why would people take up farming? It's not less work, not necessarily more nutritious

Agricultural food production

Pepper as currency in Medieval Europe, and important as far back as at least the first century AD

Cacao beans throughout MesoamericaThese currencies could be counterfeited and/or adulterated as well, e.g. wax

Food was used as money at many times, in many placesFood and economics interact in other ways as well

Subsistence strategies

Lecture 16Wednesday, March 11, 20157:54 AM

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These currencies could be counterfeited and/or adulterated as well, e.g. wax cacao beans, pepper mixed with juniper or mustard

Time spent producing/processing/preparing food is time that cannot be spent in other economic activities, such as manufacturing

What labor goes into the food that you eat? Who is producing it? How much time does that represent? Who is preparing/serving it?

These workers sustain our food economyNational cuisines change based on such volumes of immigration, e.g. salsa "dethroning" ketchup in the US

78% of farm workers in the US are foreign born, spending an average of 10 years in the US

Food production is one of the greatest labor-mobilizing force in the world; a huge motivator of immigration

A lot of economic life is spent producing/processing/preparing food, e.g. processing toxic acorns

We produce an overabundance of foodWe are also rich enough, generally, that people can afford more food than they need

Many foods that enter our diet do so b/c of deliberate efforts on the part of food companies

We, therefore, have a system set up for competition; food companies compete for every dollar spent on food, making products that are designed to sell, not necessarily to nourish us

The American food system produces enough food for all Americans, generally, to feed everyone nearly twice over, after exports

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