One of my favorite authors of all time is a writer who goes by the name of Jared Diamond. Diamond has written many nonfiction booksthat cover a wide variety of topics. My absolute favorite book of Diamond’s is a book he titles “Guns, Germs, and Steel”. This book analyzes human development, culture, geography, and biology to determine why European nations were able to conquer African, Native American, and Australian tribes and not vise vera. In this book, Diamond constantly refers back to the concept of agriculture. Diamond prompts his reader to think as he explainsthat “agriculture is both the best and the worst invention of the human race”.
Today in class Professor Hejny briefly mentioned that the term “progress” is very subjective. As human beings we see our industrial agricultural system as progress, however, such a system has many flaws andrepercussionsdeveloped countries arebeginning to notice. If the idea of agriculture had never been “invented” the environmental problems that exist in our world today would have never appeared. Also, without agriculture it is likely that many human health issues such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease would not exist (or at least not be as common). Finally, if agriculture had never existed, human populations and cultures thathave been exterminated (or are closely approaching extinction) would have never disappeared to begin with.
The thesis of Diamond’s book states that the invention of agriculture is what allowed Europeans to conquer other colonies worldwide. Though I wouldrecommend that you all read “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, the book is very long and we all have a lot of school work to do! So, this article, which is written by Diamond himself, truly explains the effects of agriculture in the ancient and modern world.
READ IT:http://www.ditext.com/diamond/mistake.html
Do you think that agriculture is the worst mistake in human history?
Is agriculture the best or the worst invention of all time?
What is progress and where do we draw the line between thriving and failing?
