To Farm or Not to Farm

Benefits, Costs and Risks of a New Way of Life

To Farm or Not to FarmFrom Guns, Germs and Steel, p 100

To Farm or Not to Farm

• Why did food production (agriculture) develop in certain areas first?

• Why did the pace of development differ greatly between originating locales?

To Farm or Not to Farm

• Misconceptions:– Ag was discovered or invented.

• No, it evolved.

– Sharp divide between farmers and hunter/gatherers.

• Not true.

– Hunter/gatherers did not manage the land. • Also, not true.

To Farm or Not to Farm

• Economics of Time and Effort:– P. 107 (2nd para.) – p. 108 in GGS.– Trade offs between:

• Taste• Time• Effort• Return• Surety, and • Prestige (to a lesser degree)

To Farm or Not to Farm

• Diffusion or Not:– Whole system adoption– Piecemeal Adoption– No adoption

– Depends largely on the answers to the economic questions.

To Farm or Not to Farm

• Competitive Advantages of Farming:– Decline of available wild foods.– More domesticable plants.– Improved Techniques.– Correlation (human pop. & food production)– Farmers overrun hunter/gatherers.

How to Make an Almond

Plant Selection & Domestication

How to Make an Almond

• Modern Crop Development Methods:– Simple Seed Selection – Intentional Hybridization– Muta-genesis– Genetic Manipulation

How to Make an Almond

• Some Early Plant Domestications:– Pea: 8000 BC – Olive: 4000BC– Strawberries: middle ages– Pecans: 1846– Oak Acorn: not yet

How to Make an Almond

• What Does a Plant Want Out of Life?– TO REPRODUCE!!!– Spread genetic material to hospitable

environments.• Wind • Water• Animals/Birds

– Outside (hide)– Inside (ingestion)

How to Make an Almond

• Latrines & Waste Dumps• Unconscious Selection

– Gather/Selection Criteria• Size• Tastiness• Bitter/Poisonous Seeds• Fleshiness• Oily Seeds• Long Fibres

– Domestication Criteria (???)• Availability• Germination Inhibitors/Uniformity• Plant Reproduction

How to Make an Almond

• Example: wheat & barley (10,000 BC)– Advantages of earliest domesticates:

• Edible• High Yield• Easily Grown• Quick Germination/Early Harvest• Readily Stored• Self-Pollinating• Little Requirement of Mutation

How to Make an Almond

• Stages of Domestication in the Fertile Crescent:– 10,000 BC => wheat & barley – 4,000 BC => fruit & nut trees– Late Stage => other fruit– Late Stage => weeds turned domesticates

• Table 7.1 - Summary of Global Domestication– Parallels

• Development of cereal/pulse combinations at early stage.• Generally, Fibre plants also occurring at this time.

– Differences• Old World Technology vs New World Technology.• In some cases, cereal carbos replaced by roots and tubers.

How to Make an Almond

• Example: Lack of Acorn Domestication:– Slow Growth: 10+ years. – Difficult Selection: squirrel competition.– Bitterness: controlled by multiple genes.

Assigned Readings

Course Reader G G S

Wednesday:“Apples or Indians” pp34-40 pp131-156By Diamond (GGS)

Friday:“Zebras …” pp41-46 pp157-175By Diamond (GGS)

“Spacious Skies …” pp47-54 pp176-191By Diamond (GGS)