Food Anthropology Background
- When did agriculture begin? How did it change human civilizations?
For the vast majority of human existence, food was hunted or gathered but, starting around 11,000 BCE Humans “began the gradual transition toward... cultivating crops and animals for food” ( jhsph.edu, p.1). By 6000 BCE all the modern animals had been domesticated and by 5000 BCE every continent except Australia practiced agriculture.
Agriculture changed human civilization in several ways. First, although farming and agriculture usually took more time and energy than the hunter gatherer lifestyle, it provided a stable food supply. Eventually, people gathered around agricultural settlements and formed the first cities. Eventually, there was a surplus of food, and some people began pursuing other interests such as politics and the arts.
- Between 1650 and 1850, something happened to the world’s population: what was it? What enabled this to happen, according to the article?
Between 1650 and 1850, the world population doubled, going from 550 million to 1.2 billion. THis forced “agricultural evolution”, a change in the way food was distributed. New technologies such as “refrigerated transport, improved processing techniques for preserving perishable foods and a growing network of railways and shipping routes...allowed farmers to ship their surplus goods over greater distances”(jhsph.edu, p.3) Farmers from the USA shipped their surplus to Europe.
- Briefly describe industrialization and mechanization in the U.S. agricultural system in the early 1900s.
- What did agricultural industry concentration do to the industry?