Food and Agriculture
Driving Forces: Food and Agriculture
Early in the history of humankind we left the security of our caves to forage for food. Foraging took us farther and farther away from our permanent habitats as food nearby became over-picked and over-hunted well beyond the seasonal ability to naturally replenish. Once away from the caves a significant distance, humans transformed becoming nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers. As tribes increased in population they traveled greater distances to fish, hunt and gather food. Once tribes became so large that it was logistically impossible to hunt and gather enough food to adequately feed its members, the tribes settled in regions where moderate climates and ample rainfall allowed them to farm, using hunting parties to bring fresh meat back to camp.
It’s within this cultural framework that hamlets, villages, small towns and cities later evolved. Early farmers survived relying entirely upon the productive capacity of the tribe, favorable climates and rich soils. According to Jared Diamond, author of Collapse, numerous communities and societies were born; most communities and societies from time-to-time were forced to move elsewhere when they too overdeveloped their capacity to adequately feed themselves. When tribes became too large to move any longer, these communities and societies disappeared and became extinct. Is the developing world beginning to reach this point again?
Like everything else within modern society, farm products, including food are now major components of international trade within the global economy. Major corporations are consolidating more of America’s farmlands and transforming them to produce new and different crops other than food for economic interests. Consequently, more and more of America’s food supplies are fow imported.
Like petroleum, food is a strategic necessity for protecting and defending America’s homeland. Yet we do not reserve food nationally in the way we strategically store petroleum. Imported food provides greater security risks. Terrorists have easier access to taint, poison or destroy foods awaiting shipment abroad than exist within the United States.
By decentralizing farming and locating food production across the nation strategically, we can dramatically improve food security; we can reduce transportation costs and cut our carbon footprints. We can also offer fresher foods to Americans and create new jobs. Urban agriculture is being successfully practiced all across Europe. We should be studying their model to determine how it can best work here.
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