Agriculture

Origins and Diffusion

The first Agricultural Revolution was the transition of societies from hunting and gathering to agriculture. This transition occurred independently in numerous locations around the world, but emerged first about 10,000–12,000 b.c.e. in the Fertile Crescent in the present-day countries of Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. Plants and animals have been bred to exhibit traits that are useful to people, called domestication. It is likely that favorable environmental factors, the availability of wild plants, complex social groups, and food surplus and sedentary livelihoods were important in this revolution. The rise of agriculture is considered revolutionary because of the changes it spawned: population growth, the development of cities, and a greater specialization of labor. People's ability to transform the earth increased markedly with agriculture. The need to feed greater populations created a greater need to transform ecosystems into agricultural systems.

Paddy rice cultivation is an important agricultural system in east and southeast Asia. Small plots of land are flooded for much of the growing season, which requires careful water management—but it is highly productive and feeds millions.

Trade, warfare, and migration diffused agricultural plants and animals. The European discovery and conquest of the Americas (1492–1533) was an important moment in agricultural diffusion. The exchange of plants and animals between the Old and New Worlds is called the Columbian Exchange, after Christopher Columbus. Maize (corn), tomatoes, potatoes, cotton, cassava, and tobacco were unknown in the Old World, and commodities such as wheat, sugar, coffee, cattle, and pigs were unknown in the Americas. This exchange radically changed diets, ecologies, and even demands for labor. For example, to satisfy European demand for sugar, Africans were brought as slaves to the Caribbean and Brazil to work on a new agricultural system—the plantation.

The Columbian Exchange was equally important in Europe. Maize and potatoes became critical components of the Second Agricultural Revolution, which occurred from approximately the late 17th century to the mid-19th century in Great Britain. Agricultural production increased substantially; rotating crops, using new crops, and early mechanization allowed farmers to grow enough food for an expanding urban population. The Second Agricultural Revolution made the Industrial Revolution possible. Although the Columbian Exchange made more crops and animals available in the Old and New Worlds, humans have come to rely on fewer crops for the majority of their diet. About 200 of the 300,000 terrestrial species of plants have been domesticated. Humans rely most heavily on about 20 species for their diets, with corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, potatoes, and cassava (yucca) being the most important staple crops.

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