Holy Crop

I thought that for a physiologist obsessed with birds, Jared Diamond was incredibly insightful as an evolutionary historian. Although, the point of reading this particular book in order to advance our understanding of the class is still slightly confusing to me, I thought that naming the development of food production as the root for modern inequality was bold and interesting point to discuss. The secret to certain civilization’s success was all thanks to geographic luck, according to Diamond. Even though the New Guineans are “more intelligent, more alert, more expressive, and more interested in the things and people around them than the average European or American” their way of surviving, even in this modern age, is through hunting and gathering, burdening their quality of health. All I know is, if I’m left in the middle of a forest and told to make my own housing and find my own food, I’m not going to make it the week, but I have technology to thank for my ignorance of basic survival skills.

I went along with this part of the book because Diamond presented a valid argument that we are well off today because our ancestors lucked out with having the advantage of crops, like wheat, that are more nutritious, have a better shelf- life, and can be used in countless products. The plants in New Guinea, however, never had this power and their crops take longer to harvest and have little nutritional value, leaving a large portion of the population with protein deficiency, something uncommon to us. After thinking about it more, I also agreed with the claim there are about 148 plant eating mammals that are over 100 pounds, perfect for domesticating. Unfortunately, in over 9,000 years, only about fourteen have ever been successfully domesticated, most of which are originally from Europe (horses, ox, cows, goats, donkeys) and few every made it to New Guinea (one of the only ones being the pig, which does not supply milk, fur, or muscle strength for labor). Just another reason why western society had the upper hand.

As much as I enjoyed this read, I am still skeptical that plants had so much power that they determined the status of certain societies before they were ever even erected. It reminded me of an article from The Onion, which is a satire, but still pokes fun at the significance food is given in our culture. Maybe it requires more reflection, but I have trouble walking through New York City looking at all of the transportation and impressive architecture and think that it all started with having better crops than someone else.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/healthy-nutritious-food-would-have-saved-the-titan,27923/