.
What is the "Longue Durée perspective" (Big history) and what has some scholars called this?
The development of agriculture in the last 10-12 k years.
Some scholars framed this as the loss of innocence for humankind
Jared Diamond = worst mistake in history
Yuval Harari = agricultural revolution = biggest fraud
Why is infectious diseases a comparative advantage for early civilisations?
Developed in SW asia with high density of livestock and people --> (evolution) people get immune to animal disease --> moves into a new place where people are not immune and kills them = easier to expand civilisation
ex: Smallpox, measles, flew
ex: smallpox epidemic in South africa from europeans, Rinderpest in Eritrean (italians), Europeans in the Americas
What are the three dimensions of sustainable agriculture?
Productivity, Sustainability, social equity.
What is sustainability about?
"Maintaining function and being able to readjust and change"
"Meeting the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"
"meeting human needs while preserving life support systems and reducing hunger and poverty"
Resilience for sustainability = resiliency = capacity to absourb chock while maintaining function + Diversity within function groups make the system resilient
Does it exist one size fits all?
No.
every system needs speciliasation and since agriculture is always developing and changing, so is the different actions and policies regarding agriculture
What kind of plant species were the key founders in the oldest civilisations? And where were these found?
Cereals: Grass species with edible seeds
--> good in wet winters and hot and dry summers
Best regions: Mediterranean and SW Asia
--> all the cultivated wheat and barley comes from this
--> leguminous species: Peas, lentils and chickpeas most important
Why was Africa divided into a eastern and a western zone?
Eastern zone = meditteranean similar with European type of agricultue (winter rain etc)
Western zone = African farming systems (summer rain etc)
What was essential for the beginning of plant protection by means of chemical sprayings?
Bordeaux mixture = accidentally discovered to protect grape winer against fungal disease and late blight in potato = this was the beginning
Herbicide = hormone herbicde could selectively kill broadleaved weeds
DDT = insect killing --> control insect that could give typhus and malaria
important book = silent spring (1962), consequences of pesticides
what is the biosphere-2 experiment?
people producing almost enough food on a small available space without cheicals, external input, pollution or degradation. Through Mixed cropping and livestock, rice/fish-culture with azolla bacterioa, close crop-livestock integration, worm-beds for supply of worms in soil + there is no "waste" = everything is recycled
What is the colombian exchange?
Which other regions provided cereals and grain legumes?
Americas = maize, beans
Sub-Saharan Africa = Sorghum, cowpea
Asia = Millets, Soya beans, rice, mung beans
What did the Arabs make in SW asia in 8th century AD?
Irrigation systems: developed into large scale water supply systems = temperate crops in winter and tropical crops in the summer
What is some of the green revolution?
input-packages with chemical fertilisers and seeds of high yielding varieties of wheat and rice = helped cereal production grow faster than the human population
What has modern economies done regariding production and consumption?
separated those two = hard to recycle nutrients
+ using fertilisers, pesticides and fossil fule to increase production to more than what nature can handle
What was the advantage of SW Asia?
Origin of livestock (sheep, cattle, goats, pigs) + good agri. crops:
--> most suitable species for domestication comes from the Eurasian landmass with highest concentration in SW Asia --> most important livestock comes from this region
what causes inequality and famine?
Often availability of food = is enough food produced?
And Accessibility = can everyone access enough food at all times? (Amartya Sen)
What is food supply about?
not only the amount of food produced, but also the distribution of food over time and space --> enough is not enough unless there is enough for all people at all times
What are harmful effects of technologies and when do they occur?
Where geographically did civilsation emerge?
And why didnt it move the same in Americas and Africa?
east-west axis
--> similarites of climates and day length = seeds can spread easily --> knowledge moves with seeds + fertile lands htat could produce surplus of food
Americas = cultures were separated in different areas where the same plants could not grown
Africa = North-South axis created ecological barriers (why here and not in mediterranean?
which commodities were really valuabe?
Sugar cane, tobacco, rubber, cotton (after invention of the cotton gin machine): motiviated slave trade and colonization to take control over production areas
What is often the difference between success and collapse in civilisations?
the ability/inability to match agricultural productivity with needs of people and to keep resources use within limits of nature's tolerance
Equity and poverty reduction: when was this born generally?