Agriculture's roots
It's about the biomass - 3rd installment from my #IVICLS presentation
This paper1 suggests that in Eastern North America the annual cropping systems of the Pre-Columbian peoples living there emerged as the result of disturbances due to the large herbivores and anthropogenic fire.
It makes sense. Hard-seeded annual plants would normally be a small percentage of a diverse stand, competing with perennial plants. There would be one spike or panicle over here and another over there. Would that be worth the effort of gathering them? They would provide poor nutrition and a low return on the effort invested. But if the dominant plant community were disturbed by natural acts or deliberate means, that would create a niche for these hard seeded annuals to germinate and make a thicker stand. Someone could then gather a greater harvest of these seeds from a given area. I found that an interesting theory.
The story of agriculture is the long-standing effort of humanity to manipulate their environments to increase the production of biomass. While the systems that emerged across the globe differed in the details of the plants, animals, and practices, one common fact was and remains true: Most of this biomass is not human-edible. Even with a wheat or corn grain crop, more than half of the biomass is not human-edible. One estimate suggests that for every kilogram of “vegan food,” 4 kilos of inedible biomass are produced.2 Livestock are essential for upcycling it into meat, milk and other products and services which benefit humans. There will be no sustainable food systems without livestock in general, and ruminant animal in particular.
The Pre-Columbian peoples living in the eastern woodlands of North America used fire extensively to keep them open, permitting easier gathering of nuts that fell from the trees and creating better habitat for game animals. They burned grasslands to produce higher quality forage for wildlife and improve hunting.3
Humanity has been doing this for a very long time, often in ways only recently recognized and appreciated as ‘agriculture.’
Throughout human history, individuals and societies have made choices in their attempts to solve the problems they faced. Then new challenges emerged that led to further changes in practices. As Thomas Sowell says, "There are no solutions - there are only trade-offs."4 Even today we're not very good at evaluating these trade-offs or even knowing what they are. This has led us to where we are today.
I hope my presentation will broaden this audience’s thinking on human nutrition, health, and our food systems to improve our understanding and appreciation of the trade-offs necessary to meet the needs of the mid-century world.
Mueller, N.G., Spengler, R.N., Glenn, A., Lama, K., 2021. Bison, anthropogenic fire, and the origins of agriculture in eastern North America. The Anthropocene Review. 8(2), 141-158. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019620961119.
https://gerati.de/2021/11/01/1-kg-veganes-lebensmittel-produzieren-4-kg-nicht-essbare-biomasse/
Mann, C.C., 2005. 1491 : New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, 1st ed. Knopf, New York.
Sowell, T., 2002. A conflict of visions: Ideological origins of political struggles. Basic Books (AZ).