Beginning about 12,000 years ago, the human population began a trend that
completely changed the way we, as a race, evolved. For the first time in
history, humans pushed beyond the restraints of traditional hunting and
gathering, into domestication and farming. It was a change that would not only
take thousands of years to prove worthy, but also may have set us back on the
evolutionary path at the time.
Along the path to this point, we have been constantly changing and finding
new ways to produce and maximize the yield of the crops we sow. Have these
changes been successful or detrimental to us? The following will search into
answering this question. Since the beginning, increased crop production has been
the ultimate goal of the farmer. The very basic advances toward this included
fertilization and rotation of crops. These simple steps alone took thousands of
years to come about.
Domestication perhaps, was the first process to actually take place. Evidence
of this is prevalent throughout many parts of the world, as far back as 11,000
years. Detection of this was done by comparing wild varieties of the product to
the preferred and produced varieties. Changes in size are the most common
differences, especially among types of grain. However, this domestication came
about mostly through the selection process. Since the people naturally selected
the larger more hearty vegetable or grain, those larger specimens of the species
would go on to produce the next generation.
Though this may seem primitive, it has led to the varieties we see and eat
today. The past two centuries have, no doubt, been the most influential and
beneficial to the agricultural industry. Fertilization has been around for a
long time, but not until recently did we really understand how to maximize the
potential. Native Americans have known that burring a fish while planting seeds
provides a larger yield. And mixing animal manure into the soil to increase
production, has been going on for thousands of years in many cultures.
Not until recently, did science discover what was behind these two methods
though. Today, instead of the nitrogen rich manure we more commonly use a
chemical powder, and instead of the phosphorus rich fish bones, we use a pellet
compound that consists of phosphorus. Along with our discovered technologies, we
have come up with chemicals to kill off what has plagued our crops from the
beginning. Herbicides and pesticides are commonly used practices all over the
world.
What better way to bear more fruit, than to kill off the natural predator
that feeds upon it? And most recent, has been the engineering of fruit
vegetables and grains to resist the predators themselves, without the use of
chemicals. Some types of corn are now resistant to a fungus that, 20 years ago,
could have wiped out thousands of acres. All made possible by genetic
engineering. Another way to further sustain the needs of human demand, is to
make completely arid regions into fertile lands.
During the early Egyptian era, once a year the Nile would spill over its
banks, turning a dry, sandy region, into rich growing plains for a few months.
The Roman era tapped the water resource even further by building aqueducts. This
allowed the fields to spread out more distant from the river itself. Today, we
utilize both of our ancestors discoveries to the fullest.
