Written by: Michael Koy
Food production is intertwined with the growth of civilizations and populations, as every major advancement in the past had everything to do with the growth of agriculture. For instance, the invention of agriculture and farming thousands of years ago spawned the creation of cities, and many empires and civilizations had the advancement in farming techniques for their growth. As a result, this article aims to tell the overshadowed tale of agriculture.
During the Neolithic Age when the globe was dominated by savage hunter-gatherers, a new groundbreaking revolution was forming in small pockets: farming. As farming spread across the globe, the hunter-gatherers merged with the new farmers, thus creating stationary settlements that would merge into cities in the future. This urban spawning revolution would be the first of numerous revolutions that had shaped the world into the urban and dynamic world it is today.
The second agricultural revolution was the invention of irrigation. This discovery was responsible for the creation of many ancient cultures and societies, which were precursors to the modern world.
For instance, the Egyptians and Mesopanmians dug out canals and rivers which made food largely reliant on man-made structures rather than the weather. As a result, many Ancient religions and beliefs were based upon a god of agriculture, who were more often than not, the maintainers and controllers of the irrigation systems. This created some of the world’s first examples of societal divisions and centralized authority.
The third revolution was directly responsible for the shape of the Modern world, which occurred during the Industrial Revolution. This revolution was a result of the industrialization of farming techniques (tractors, crop rotation). The results were staggering, as the population doubled during the 19th century while urbanization reached unprecedented amounts.
All three of these revolutions played a huge role in the shape of our modern world. Furthermore, their impacts are proof of how agriculture was largely responsible for civilization and it is up to us to create another revolution to further advance the human race.
Sources:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/earthscienceck12x33/chapter/human-populations/
https://www.foodsystemprimer.org/food-production/industrialization-of-agriculture/
http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Hy-La/Irrigation-Systems-Ancient.html