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agricultural revolution

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• British Broadcasting Corporation - History - Agricultural Revolution in England
• World History Encyclopedia - Agriculture in the British Industrial Revolution
• Academia - The Agricultural Revolution: Catalysts and Consequences
• Khan Academy - The Agricultural Revolution

agricultural revolution , gradual transformation of the traditional agricultural system that began in Britain in the 18th century. Aspects of this complex transformation, which was not completed until the 19th century, included the reallocation of land ownership to make farms more compact and an increased investment in technical improvements, such as new machinery, better drainage, scientific methods of breeding , and experimentation with new crops and systems of crop rotation .

Among those new crop-rotation methods was the Norfolk four-course system , established in Norfolk county , England , which emphasized fodder crops and the absence of the theretofore conventionally employed fallow year. Wheat was grown in the first year and turnips in the second, followed by barley , with clover and ryegrass undersown in the third. The clover and ryegrass were cut for feed or grazed in the fourth year. In the winter, cattle and sheep were fed the turnips. The development of Shorthorn beef cattle through selective breeding of local cattle of the Teeswater district, Durham county , typified the advances brought about by scientific breeding.

The historiography of the period that emphasized the contributions of “great men” has lost much of its influence, but the names Jethro Tull and Arthur Young are still frequently invoked by those seeking to understand the significance of the agricultural revolution, which was an essential prelude to the Industrial Revolution .

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Neolithic Revolution

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 4, 2023 | Original: January 12, 2018

The Neolithic Revolution, also called the Agricultural Revolution, marked the transition in human history from small, nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers to larger, agricultural settlements and early civilization. The Neolithic Revolution started around 10,000 B.C. in the Fertile Crescent, a boomerang-shaped region of the Middle East where humans first took up farming. Shortly after, Stone Age humans in other parts of the world also began to practice agriculture. Civilizations and cities grew out of the innovations of the Neolithic Revolution.

Neolithic Age

The Neolithic Age is sometimes called the New Stone Age . Neolithic humans used stone tools like their earlier Stone Age ancestors, who eked out a marginal existence in small bands of hunter-gatherers during the last Ice Age .

Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe coined the term “Neolithic Revolution” in 1935 to describe the radical and important period of change in which humans began cultivating plants, breeding animals for food and forming permanent settlements. The advent of agriculture separated Neolithic people from their Paleolithic ancestors.

Many facets of modern civilization can be traced to this moment in history when people started living together in communities.

Causes of the Neolithic Revolution

There was no single factor that led humans to begin farming roughly 12,000 years ago. The causes of the Neolithic Revolution may have varied from region to region.

The Earth entered a warming trend around 14,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. Some scientists theorize that climate changes drove the Agricultural Revolution.

In the Fertile Crescent , bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea and on the east by the Persian Gulf, wild wheat and barley began to grow as it got warmer. Pre-Neolithic people called Natufians started building permanent houses in the region.

Other scientists suggest that intellectual advances in the human brain may have caused people to settle down. Religious artifacts and artistic imagery—progenitors of human civilization—have been uncovered at the earliest Neolithic settlements.

The Neolithic Era began when some groups of humans gave up the nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle completely to begin farming. It may have taken humans hundreds or even thousands of years to transition fully from a lifestyle of subsisting on wild plants to keeping small gardens and later tending large crop fields.

Neolithic Humans

The archaeological site of Çatalhöyük in southern Turkey is one of the best-preserved Neolithic settlements. Studying Çatalhöyük has given researchers a better understanding of the transition from a nomadic life of hunting and gathering to an agriculture lifestyle.

Archaeologists have unearthed more than a dozen mud-brick dwellings at the 9,500 year-old Çatalhöyük. They estimate that as many as 8,000 people may have lived here at one time. The houses were clustered so closely back-to-back that residents had to enter the homes through a hole in the roof.

The inhabitants of Çatalhöyük appear to have valued art and spirituality. They buried their dead under the floors of their houses. The walls of the homes are covered with murals of men hunting, cattle and female goddesses .

Some of the earliest evidence of farming comes from the archaeological site of Tell Abu Hureyra, a small village located along the Euphrates River in modern Syria . The village was inhabited from roughly 11,500 to 7,000 B.C.

Inhabitants of Tell Abu Hureyra initially hunted gazelle and other game. Around 9,700 B.C. they began to harvest wild grains. Several large stone tools for grinding grain have been found at the site.

Agricultural Inventions

Plant domestication: Cereals such as emmer wheat, einkorn wheat and barley were among the first crops domesticated by Neolithic farming communities in the Fertile Crescent. These early farmers also domesticated lentils, chickpeas, peas and flax.

Domestication is the process by which farmers select for desirable traits by breeding successive generations of a plant or animal. Over time, a domestic species becomes different from its wild relative.

Neolithic farmers selected for crops that harvested easily. Wild wheat, for instance, falls to the ground and shatters when it is ripe. Early humans bred for wheat that stayed on the stem for easier harvesting.

Around the same time that farmers were beginning to sow wheat in the Fertile Crescent, people in Asia started to grow rice and millet. Scientists have discovered archaeological remnants of Stone Age rice paddies in Chinese swamps dating back at least 7,700 years.

In Mexico , squash cultivation began about 10,000 years ago, while maize-like crops emerged around 9,000 years ago.

Livestock : The first livestock were domesticated from animals that Neolithic humans hunted for meat. Domestic pigs were bred from wild boars, for instance, while goats came from the Persian ibex. Domesticated animals made the hard, physical labor of farming possible while their milk and meat added variety to the human diet. They also carried infectious diseases: smallpox, influenza and the measles all spread from domesticated animals to humans.

The first farm animals also included sheep and cattle. These originated in Mesopotamia between 10,000 and 13,000 years ago. Water buffalo and yak were domesticated shortly after in China , India and Tibet.

Draft animals including oxen, donkeys and camels appeared much later—around 4,000 B.C.—as humans developed trade routes for transporting goods.

Effects of the Neolithic Revolution

The Neolithic Revolution led to masses of people establishing permanent settlements supported by farming and agriculture. It paved the way for the innovations of the ensuing Bronze Age and Iron Age , when advancements in creating tools for farming, wars and art swept the world and brought civilizations together through trade and conquest.

The Development of Agriculture; National Geographic . The Seeds of Civilization; Smithsonian Magazine .

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Women harvest wheat with sickles in Tras os Monte, Portugal.

What was the Neolithic Revolution?

Also called the Agricultural Revolution, the shift to agriculture from hunting and gathering changed humanity forever.

The Neolithic Revolution—also referred to as the Agricultural Revolution—is thought to have begun about 12,000 years ago. It coincided with the end of the last ice age and the beginning of the current geological epoch, the Holocene . And it forever changed how humans live, eat, and interact, paving the way for modern civilization.

During the Neolithic period , hunter-gatherers roamed the natural world, foraging for their food. But then a dramatic shift occurred. The foragers became farmers, transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a more settled one.

Why settle down?

Though the exact dates and reasons for the transition are debated, evidence of a move away from hunting and gathering and toward agriculture has been documented worldwide. Farming is thought to have happened first in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, where multiple groups of people developed the practice independently . Thus, the “agricultural revolution” was likely a series of revolutions that occurred at different times in different places.

A farmer winnows grain in a field near the Pyramid of Meidum, in Egypt.

There are a variety of hypotheses as to why humans stopped foraging and started farming. Population pressure may have caused increased competition for food and the need to cultivate new foods; people may have shifted to farming in order to involve elders and children in food production; humans may have learned to depend on plants they modified in early domestication attempts and in turn, those plants may have become dependent on humans. With new technology come new and ever-evolving theories about how and why the agricultural revolution began.

Regardless of how and why humans began to move away from hunting and foraging, they continued to become more settled. This was in part due to their increasing domestication of plants. Humans are thought to have gathered plants and their seeds as early as 23,000 years ago , and to have started farming cereal grains like barley as early as 11,000 years ago. Afterward, they moved on to protein-rich foods like peas and lentils. As these early farmers became better at cultivating food, they may have produced surplus seeds and crops that required storage . This would have both spurred population growth because of more consistent food availability and required a more settled way of life with the need to store seeds and tend crops.

Animal domestication

As humans began to experiment with farming, they also started domesticating animals. Evidence of sheep and goat herding has been found in Iraq and Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) as far back as about 12,000 years ago. Domesticated animals, when used as labor, helped make more intensive farming possible and also provided additional nutrition via milk and meat for increasingly stable populations.

A man on a donkey leads sheep down a path in Syria.

The agricultural revolution had a variety of consequences for humans. It has been linked to everything from societal inequality —a result of humans’ increased dependence on the land and fears of scarcity—to a decline in nutrition and a rise in infectious diseases contracted from domesticated animals. But the new period also ushered in the potential for modern societies—civilizations characterized by large population centers, improved technology and advancements in knowledge, arts, and trade.

Related Topics

• SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
• ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
• ANCIENT PERSIA

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Ch. 25 The Industrial Revolution

Effects of the agricultural revolution, 25.1.4: effects of the agricultural revolution.

The increase in agricultural production and technological advancements during the Agricultural Revolution contributed to unprecedented population growth and new agricultural practices, triggering such phenomena as rural-to-urban migration, development of a coherent and loosely regulated agricultural market, and emergence of capitalist farmers.

Learning Objective

Infer some major social and economic outcomes of the Agricultural Revolution

• The Agricultural Revolution in Britain proved to be a major turning point, allowing population to far exceed earlier peaks and sustain the country’s rise to industrial preeminence. It is estimated that total agricultural output grew 2.7-fold between 1700 and 1870 and output per worker at a similar rate. The Agricultural Revolution gave Britain the most productive agriculture in Europe, with 19th-century yields as much as 80% higher than the Continental average.
• The increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid growth of population in England and Wales, from 5.5 million in 1700 to over 9 million by 1801, although domestic production gave way increasingly to food imports in the 19th century as population more than tripled to over 32 million.
• The rise in productivity accelerated the decline of the agricultural share of the labor force, adding to the urban workforce on which industrialization depended. The Agricultural Revolution has therefore been cited as a cause of the Industrial Revolution. As enclosure deprived many of access to land or left farmers with plots too small and of poor quality, increasing numbers of workers had no choice but migrate to the city. However, mass rural flight did not take place until the Industrial Revolution was already underway.
• The most important development between the 16th century and the mid-19th century was the development of private marketing. By the 19th century, marketing was nationwide and the vast majority of agricultural production was for market rather than for the farmer and his family.
• The next stage of development was trading between markets, requiring merchants, credit and forward sales, and knowledge of markets and pricing as well as of supply and demand in different markets. Eventually the market evolved into a national one driven by London and other growing cities. Commerce was aided by the expansion of roads and inland waterways.
• With the development of regional markets and eventually a national market aided by improved transportation infrastructures, farmers were no longer dependent on their local markets. This freed them from having to lower prices in an oversupplied local market and the inability to sell surpluses to distant localities experiencing shortages. They also became less subject to price fixing regulations. Farming became a business rather than solely a means of subsistence.

Significance of the Agricultural Revolution

The Agricultural Revolution in Britain proved to be a major turning point, allowing population to far exceed earlier peaks and sustain the country’s rise to industrial preeminence. Although evidence-based advice on farming began to appear in England in the mid-17th century, the overall agricultural productivity of Britain grew significantly only later. It is estimated that total agricultural output grew 2.7-fold between 1700 and 1870 and output per worker at a similar rate. The Agricultural Revolution gave Britain at the time the most productive agriculture in Europe, with 19th-century yields as much as 80% higher than the Continental average. Even as late as 1900, British yields were rivaled only by Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium. But Britain’s lead eroded as European countries experienced their own agricultural revolutions, raising grain yields on average by 60% in the century preceding World War I. Interestingly, the Agricultural Revolution in Britain did not result in overall productivity per hectare of agriculture that would rival productivity in China, where intensive cultivation (including multiple annual cropping in many areas) had been practiced for many centuries. Towards the end of the 19th century, the substantial gains in British agricultural productivity were rapidly offset by competition from cheaper imports, made possible by the exploitation of colonies and advances in transportation, refrigeration, and other technologies.

Social Impact

The increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid growth of population in England and Wales, from 5.5 million in 1700 to over 9 million by 1801, although domestic production gave way increasingly to food imports in the 19th century as population more than tripled to over 32 million. The rise in productivity accelerated the decline of the agricultural share of the labor force, adding to the urban workforce on which industrialization depended. The Agricultural Revolution has therefore been cited as a cause of the Industrial Revolution. As enclosure deprived many of access to land or left farmers with plots too small and of poor quality, increasing numbers of workers had no choice but migrate to the city. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, however, rural flight occurred in mostly localized regions. Pre-industrial societies did not experience large rural-urban migration flows, primarily due to the inability of cities to support large populations. Lack of large employment industries, high urban mortality, and low food supplies all served as checks keeping pre-industrial cities much smaller than their modern counterparts. While the improved agricultural productivity freed up workers to other sectors of the economy, it took decades of the Industrial Revolution and industrial development to trigger a truly mass rural-to-urban labor migration. As food supplies increased and stabilized and industrialized centers moved into place, cities began to support larger populations, sparking the beginning of rural flight on a massive scale. In England, the proportion of the population living in cities jumped from 17% in 1801 to 72% in 1891.

Drawing of a horse-powered thresher from a French dictionary (published in 1881).

The development and advancement of  tools and machines decreased the demand for rural labor. That together with increasingly restricted access to land forced many rural workers to migrate to cities, eventually supplying the labor demand created by the Industrial Revolution.

New Agricultural Market Trends

Markets were widespread by 1500. These were regulated and not free. The most important development between the 16th century and the mid-19th century was the development of private marketing. By the 19th century, marketing was nationwide and the vast majority of agricultural production was for market rather than for the farmer and his family. The 16th-century market radius was about 10 miles, which could support a town of 10,000. High wagon transportation costs made it uneconomical to ship commodities very far outside the market radius by road, generally limiting shipment to less than 20 or 30 miles to market or to a navigable waterway.

The next stage of development was trading between markets, requiring merchants, credit and forward sales, and knowledge of markets and pricing as well as of supply and demand in different markets. Eventually the market evolved into a national one driven by London and other growing cities. By 1700, there was a national market for wheat. Legislation regulating middlemen required registration, and addressed weights and measures, fixing of prices, and collection of tolls by the government. Market regulations were eased in 1663, when people were allowed some self-regulation to hold inventory, but it was forbidden to withhold commodities from the market in an effort to increase prices. In the late 18th century, the idea of “self regulation” was gaining acceptance. The lack of internal tariffs, customs barriers, and feudal tolls made Britain “the largest coherent market in Europe.”

Commerce was aided by the expansion of roads and inland waterways. Road transport capacity grew from threefold to fourfold from 1500 to 1700. By the early 19th century it cost as much to transport a ton of freight 32 miles by wagon over an unimproved road as it did to ship it 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.

With the development of regional markets and eventually a national market aided by improved transportation infrastructures, farmers were no longer dependent on their local markets and were less subject to having to sell at low prices into an oversupplied local market and not being able to sell their surpluses to distant localities that were experiencing shortages. They also became less subject to price fixing regulations. Farming became a business rather than solely a means of subsistence. Under free market capitalism, farmers had to remain competitive. To be successful, they had to become effective managers who incorporated the latest farming innovations in order to be low-cost producers.

Attributions

• “British Agricultural Revolution.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Agricultural_Revolution . Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 .
• “Rural flight.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_flight . Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 .
• “Urbanization.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization . Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 .
• “Enclosure.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure . Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 .
• “Industrial Revolution.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution . Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 .
• “Batteuse_1881.jpg.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Batteuse_1881.jpg . Wikipedia Public domain .
• Boundless World History. Authored by : Boundless. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/ . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

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The Development of Agriculture

The development of agricultural about 12,000 years ago changed the way humans lived. They switched from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to permanent settlements and farming.

Social Studies, World History

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The Farming Revolution Taking root around 12,000 years ago, agriculture triggered such a change in society and the way in which people lived that its development has been dubbed the “ Neolithic Revolution.” Traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles, followed by humans since their evolution, were swept aside in favor of permanent settlements and a reliable food supply. Out of agriculture, cities and civilizations grew, and because crops and animals could now be farmed to meet demand, the global population rocketed—from some five million people 10,000 years ago, to eight billion today.

There was no single factor, or combination of factors, that led people to take up farming in different parts of the world. In the Near East , for example, it’s thought that climatic changes at the end of the last ice age brought seasonal conditions that favored annual plants like wild cereals . Elsewhere, such as in East Asia, increased pressure on natural food resources may have forced people to find homegrown solutions. But whatever the reasons for its independent origins, farming sowed the seeds for the modern age.

Plant Domestication

The wild progenitors of crops including wheat ( Triticum aestivum ), barley ( Hordeum vulgare ), and peas ( Lathyrus oleraceus ) are traced to the Near East region. Cereals were grown in Syria as long as 9,000 years ago, while figs ( Ficus carica ) were cultivated even earlier; prehistoric seedless fruits discovered in the Jordan Valley suggest fig trees were being planted some 11,300 years ago. Though the transition from wild harvesting was gradual, the switch from a nomadic to a settled way of life is marked by the appearance of early Neolithic villages with homes equipped with grinding stones for processing grain.

The origins of rice and millet farming date to the same Neolithic period in China. The world’s oldest known rice paddy fields, discovered in eastern China in 2007, reveal evidence of ancient cultivation techniques such as flood and fire control.

In Mexico, squash cultivation began around 10,000 years ago, but corn ( maize ) had to wait for natural genetic mutations to be selected for in its wild ancestor, teosinte. While maize -like plants derived from teosinte appear to have been cultivated at least 9,000 years ago, the first directly dated corn cob dates only to around 5,500 years ago.

Corn later reached North America, where cultivated sunflowers ( Helianthus annuus ) also started to bloom some 5,000 years ago. This is also when potato ( Solanum tuberosum ) growing in the Andes region of South America began.

Farmed Animals

Cattle ( Bos taurus ), goats ( Capra hircus ), sheep ( Ovis aries ), and pigs ( Sus domesticus ) all have their origins as farmed animals in the so-called Fertile Crescent , a region covering eastern Turkey, Iraq, and southwestern Iran. This region kick-started the Neolithic Revolution. Dates for the domestication of these animals range from between 13,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Genetic studies show that goats and other livestock accompanied the westward spread of agriculture into Europe, helping to revolutionize Stone Age society. While the extent to which farmers themselves migrated west remains a subject of debate, the dramatic impact of dairy farming on Europeans is clearly stamped in their DNA. Prior to the arrival of domestic cattle in Europe, prehistoric populations weren’t able to stomach raw cow milk. But at some point during the spread of farming into southeastern Europe, a mutation occurred for lactose tolerance that increased in frequency through natural selection thanks to the nourishing benefits of milk. Judging from the prevalence of the milk-drinking gene in Europeans today—as high as 90 percent in populations of northern countries such as Sweden—the vast majority are descended from cow herders.

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The Agricultural Revolution: From the Neolithic Age to a New Era of Agricultural Growth Research Paper

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The introduction

The conclusion, works cited.

So, first of all, I would like to point out that Neolithic Revolution is one of the most interesting technological discoveries of pre-history. The discovery of tools is recognized to be one of the most important events of human development, as it is a well-known fact that “The development of tools such as flint points, axes, weapons such as the spear and the bow and arrow, snares, and hooks is a reflection of the change from gathering and scavenging to hunting” (“Neolithic Revolution and the Discovery of Agriculture” 1).

Another important point of humans’ development is recognized to be control of fire. Generally, I suppose that this aspect is of great importance as fire provided people of the Neolithic Age with heat and light.

On the other hand, the discovery of fire helped people to cook food. In my opinion, this aspect is very important, as at that time numerous food items were not only unpalatable, but also unsanitary. The most significant discovery of humankind is considered to be the way to preserve fire.

On the other hand, one may point out that another key technique people became familiar with is getting fire due to combustion processes. For this reason, I suppose that one can make a conclusion that Neolithic Revolution is the key moment in the history of humans’ development.

Finally, another important aspect of the age is considered to be the invention of agriculture. This process includes domestication of various wild animals, management of plants, etc. Generally, when talking about the invention of agriculture, one is to make a conclusion that the dawn of profound social changes had started in times of Neolithic Age.

It is said that “Agriculture was adopted repeatedly and independently in various parts of the world after the retreat of the Pleitocene ice around 12,000 years ago” (“Neolithic Revolution and the Discovery of Agriculture” 1). The discovery of the wheel is another important event, which is to be highlighted. Thus, this invention marked the beginning of the so-called mechanical revolution.

Stages of human development

Generally, the stages of human development include hunting and gathering, use of wild grains, and Neolithic agricultural revolution. The last point is characterized by the so-called New Stone Age, farming, domestication of dogs, goats, and other wild animals. Numerous social consequences also took place.

The Neolithic Age and Agricultural Revolution

This period started 10,000 years ago. The Neolithic Age is mostly associated with “the use of polished stone implements, development of permanent dwellings,

cultural advances such as pottery making, domestication of animals and plants, the cultivation of grain and fruit trees, and weaving” (“Neolithic Revolution and the Discovery of Agriculture” 1). On the other hand, the definition of the Neolithic Revolution is mostly related to farming appearance. When bronze tools appeared, this period was called the late period of revolution; or, in other words – the Late Neolithic Period.

Origins of agriculture are still quite ambiguous. To understand the precise origin of agriculture, one is to analyze numerous aspects, including various ecological types, a mind climate, hunting and fishing aspects, flora, etc. “The spread of early agricultural techniques led to new advances as new plant forms were carried to new environments” (“Neolithic Revolution and the Discovery of Agriculture” 1).

The earliest tools were made from stones. Generally, they say that the first traces of agricultural development were obvious on the territory of the Fertile Crescent. As far as I know, Israel and Iraq are considered to be modern areas of agricultural development.

Adze and axe 7000 BCE – 5000 BCE

The process of domestication can’t be neglected and requires some more attention. Thus, there is an opinion that domestication took place for religious reasons. For instance, various ceremonies and rituals were held to worship Gods as well as to present them with gifts.

Christopher Paik is of the opinion that in time of the Neolithic Age “the regions of fertile lands also adopted agriculture early, and they also developed more extractive institutions; the regions that had less suitable lands for agriculture on the other hand adopted agriculture later and developed less extractive institutions” (4).

On the other hand, domestication can be also explained by certain climatic changes. “In agricultural societies children are assets, so once the decision is made to depend on agriculture, populations inevitably increase and the economy becomes locked into agriculture” (“Neolithic Revolution and the Discovery of Agriculture” 3). Finally, I would like to point out that nomadism can also explain agricultural development. In other words, there is certain interdependence between hunting and farming.

Generally, the major points of the Neolithic Revolution are food raising, settled life (it includes the construction of villages, towns, and first cities), new technologies, and social organization.

(“The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution” 12)

Fertile Crescent, South Asia, East Asia, Central America, Egypt, Vietnam, etc. are considered to be the most well-known areas of agriculture development. The earliest near East town were Ain Ghazal (Jordan), Jericho (in our days, it is modern Palestine), and Catal Huyuk (in our days, it is contemporary Turkey).

Demographic changes are also recognized to be rather important. Thus, I would like to tell a few words about this aspect. So, it is necessary to point out that the availability of food items influenced higher populations. In this respect, some extra points can be added.

For instance, sedentary mode of life permitted more children. On the other hand, this mode of life also caused various illnesses. The illnesses were spread from animals. Of course, taking into account people’s constant interactions, one can point out that the diseases caused epidemics.

So, another important aspect I would like to highlight is related to the so-called social transformation. This aspect includes increasing organization (families, large societies, chiefdoms, states), social stratification (some food producers appeared, – they provided societies with food items; craft specialization, religious elites, hereditary rulers, slavery, gender discrimination), welfare of separate societies or groups.

The fist states are also to be considered. Various chiefdoms competed for domination. Thus, the first states were formed. The functions of the state were to resolve internal disorders, to protect the state from external threats, and to redistribute resources. Finally, the basic elements of civilization were political institutions, organized religion, administrative centers, hierarchical system of classes, taxation, specialization of labor, technological development, trade, and the last step – writing.

The Agricultural Revolution: New Era

In the untimely part of the 18 th century, several farmers had narrow pieces of land that they would cultivate and generate their food (Snell 62). This system had several limitations among them being wastage of land the banks of earth that divided the narrow pieces of lands. Moreover, the drainage system for these lands was poor, and since the farmers had little knowledge on land fertility, they had to leave some land fellow every four years to improve their fertility.

This means that here was no agricultural revolution because this practice persisted for an unusually long period. Besides, the general modifications in farming were extremely slow. The problem with that was that food production remained constant while the population increased. Therefore, some people begun to experience food shortages, which meant that something had to be done.

However, in early 19 th century, farmers begun to encompass new farming methods such as Norforlk Crop rotation system, which helped them, eliminate the problems of land fallow. The land was split in four portions with different crops planted in them (Bellis par. 6).

The crop that would be produced in each section would be rotated so that distinct nutrients would be consumed from the land. For example, in one year, crop such as turnips would be cultivated and in the second year, barley cultivated on the same land piece turnips crops, which in turn, replaces the barleys in their initial land. In the third year, a grass crop replaces the barley and in the fourth year wheat grown in the field.

This process helped the farmers grow some crops for profits such as wheat and barley. As the demand of food rose, individuals began to make modifications to the types of farming machines they used in their farms among them being the threshing and drilling machines (Bellwood 27).

These types of inventions accompanied with field enclosure method, facilitated agriculture to grow swiftly and generate adequate food for the increasing population. Other inventions such as the plow, creation of large-scale agricultural generation potential and leading agrarian communities led to the agricultural revolution that generated an alteration of human society.

The revolution had such a massive significance on society that several individual refer to as the “dawn of civilization.” It was during the same era when the plow was discovered that the writing, wheel and numbers were also discovered (Snell 201).

The agricultural revolution drew more attention on the changes that occurred because of the domestication upheaval that lengthened the evolution effects even further in community. The following figure shows the breakdown of radical changes that occurred during agricultural revolution.

In time of the revolution era, stratification appeared as the principal feature of social life. This integration of authority and resources finally led to the establishment of the state as the wealthy and authoritative established institution of the state to consolidate their gains even further (Bellis par. 3).

The farmers of early days in America had poor agricultural equipments that could not lead to incredible harvest. Agricultural plows that Roman farmers had were better than the American farmers’ plows. By description, a plow (others call it plough) refers to farm equipment with one or several blades that smashes the soil and cut a furrow for spreading seeds (Cohen 35).

So, while analyzing the above-mentioned facts, one can state that agricultural development began a long time ago with acceleration and pressure from the increasing population that increased the demand of food. The agricultural revolution was mainly on the farming tools that reduced labor and increased production.

Bellis, Mary. The Agricultural Revolution : Introduction to the Agricultural Revolution , 2012. Web.

Bellwood, Peter. First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies . Malden (MA): Blackwell Publishers, 2004. Print.

Cohen, Mark Nathan. The Food Crisis in Prehistory: Overpopulation and the Origins of Agriculture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977. Print.

Neolithic Revolution and the Discovery of Agriculture , n.d., Web.

Paik, Christopher. Historical Underpinnings of Institutions: Evidence from the Neolithic Revolution , 2010. Web.

Snell, K.D.M. Annals of the Labouring Poor, Social Change and Agrarian England 1660-1900. Cambridge University Presslocation: Cambridge, UK, 1985. Print.

The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution , n.d., Web.

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IvyPanda. (2018, June 8). The Agricultural Revolution: From the Neolithic Age to a New Era of Agricultural Growth. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-agricultural-revolution-from-the-neolithic-age-to-a-new-era-of-agricultural-growth/

"The Agricultural Revolution: From the Neolithic Age to a New Era of Agricultural Growth." IvyPanda , 8 June 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-agricultural-revolution-from-the-neolithic-age-to-a-new-era-of-agricultural-growth/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'The Agricultural Revolution: From the Neolithic Age to a New Era of Agricultural Growth'. 8 June.

IvyPanda . 2018. "The Agricultural Revolution: From the Neolithic Age to a New Era of Agricultural Growth." June 8, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-agricultural-revolution-from-the-neolithic-age-to-a-new-era-of-agricultural-growth/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Agricultural Revolution: From the Neolithic Age to a New Era of Agricultural Growth." June 8, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-agricultural-revolution-from-the-neolithic-age-to-a-new-era-of-agricultural-growth/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Agricultural Revolution: From the Neolithic Age to a New Era of Agricultural Growth." June 8, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-agricultural-revolution-from-the-neolithic-age-to-a-new-era-of-agricultural-growth/.

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30 The British Agricultural Revolution

Richard Hoyle was formerly Professor of Rural History at the University of Reading and Professor of Regional and Local History at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. He is now Visiting Professor of Economic History at Reading. He served as editor of Agricultural History Review for twenty years and is the author of numerous publications on tenancy, landholding, and land markets.

• Published: 21 March 2024
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This chapter offers a new interpretation of the British agricultural revolution. It begins by reviewing the historiography of the late eighteenth-century agricultural revolution, showing how the idea had been largely abandoned by the 1980s but has since been revived. The background to it is quickly sketched in, including population growth, but also a move away from arable cultivation through enclosure. The impact of English population growth on Scotland and Ireland is considered. It is explained how contemporaries saw agrarian change in the late eighteenth century as evidence of failure, given that England moved from being an exporter to an importer of grain. War after 1793 encouraged a revival of arable agriculture and massive investment in agriculture including the enclosure of wastes; after 1815 there was a perception that a bubble had burst. The argument that an agricultural revolution took place in the depressed years after 1815 is quickly reviewed.

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The British Agricultural Revolution

How it works

• 1.1 Protestant Reformation
• 1.2 Boston Massacre
• 1.3 Mayflower Compact

Agricultural Revolution

The British Agricultural Revolution, or Second Agricultural Revolution, was the unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain due to increases in labor and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries The Agricultural Revolution was a period of technological improvement and increased crop productivity that occurred during the 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe. In this lesson, learn the timeline, causes, effects and major inventions that spurred this shift in production. The Agricultural Revolution got its start in Great Britain in the early 18th century and spread throughout Europe and America by the 19th century.

This was a period of significant agricultural development marked by new farming techniques and inventions that led to a massive increase in food production.

Historians have often labeled the first Agricultural Revolution (which took place around 10,000 B.C.) as the period of transition from a hunting-and-gathering society to one based on stationary farming. During the 18th century, another Agricultural Revolution took place when European agriculture shifted from the techniques of the past. New patterns of crop rotation and livestock utilization paved the way for better crop yields, a greater diversity of wheat and vegetables and the ability to support more livestock. These changes impacted society as the population became better nourished and healthier. The Enclosure Acts, passed in Great Britain, allowed wealthy lords to purchase public fields and push out small-scale farmers, causing a migration of men looking for wage labor in cities. These workers would provide the labor for new industries during the Industrial Revolution.

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a major 16th century European movement aimed initially at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Its religious aspects were supplemented by ambitious political rulers who wanted to extend their power and control at the expense of the Church. The Reformation was a movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe. Although the Reformation is usually considered to have started with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Martin Luther in 1517, there was no schism until the 1521 Edict of Worms. Because of corruption in the Catholic Church, some people saw a need to change the way it worked. The Protestant reformation triggered the Catholic Counter-Reformation. In general, Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 theses at Wittenberg is seen as the start of the Protestant Reformation. This happened in the year 1517. The major causes of the protestant reformation include that of political, economic, social, and religious background. The religious causes involve problems with church authority and a monks views driven by his anger towards the church. Martin Luther was dissatisfied with the authority that clergy held over laypeople in the Catholic Church. Luther’s Protestant idea that clergy shouldn’t hold more religious authority than laypeople became very popular in Germany and spread quickly throughout Europe Reformation, also called Protestant Reformation, the religious revolution that took place in the Western church in the 16th century. … Having far-reaching political, economic, and social effects, the Reformation became the basis for the founding of Protestantism, one of the three major branches of Christianity.

Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre, known to the British as the Incident on King Street, was a confrontation on March 5, 1770 in which British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob in Boston. The event was heavily publicized by leading Patriots such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict energized anti-Britain sentiment and paved the way for the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a “patriot” mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry.

Prior to the Boston Massacre the British had instituted a number of new taxes on the American colonies including taxes on tea, glass, paper, paint, and lead. These taxes were part of a group of laws called the Townshend Acts. The colonies did not like these laws. They felt these laws were a violation of their rights. Just like when Britain imposed the Stamp Act, the colonists began to protest and the British brought in soldiers to keep order. The Boston Massacre was a signal event leading to the Revolutionary War. It led directly to the Royal Governor evacuating the occupying army from the town of Boston. It would soon bring the revolution to armed rebellion throughout the colonies.

Mayflower Compact

The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the male passengers of the Mayflower, consisting of separatist Puritans, adventurers, and tradesmen. The Puritans were fleeing from religious persecution by King James of England. The Mayflower Compact was a set of rules for self-governance established by the English settlers who traveled to the New World on the Mayflower. When Pilgrims and other settlers set out on the ship for America in 1620, they intended to lay anchor in northern Virginia. But after treacherous shoals and storms drove their ship off course, the settlers landed in Massachusetts instead, near Cape Cod, outside of Virginia’s jurisdiction. Knowing life without laws could prove catastrophic, colonist leaders created the Mayflower Compact to ensure a functioning social structure would prevail.

Pilgrim leaders wanted to quell the rebellion before it took hold. After all, establishing a New World colony would be difficult enough without dissent in the ranks. The Pilgrims knew they needed as many productive, law-abiding souls as possible to make the colony successful. With that in mind, they set out to create a temporary set of laws for ruling themselves as per majority agreement. On November 11, 1620, 41 adult male colonists, including two indentured servants, signed the Mayflower Compact, although it wasn’t called that at the time. It’s unclear who wrote the Mayflower Compact, but the well-educated Separatist and pastor William Brewster is usually given credit.

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Agriculture in the Fertile Crescent & Mesopotamia

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The ancient Near East , and the historical region of the Fertile Crescent in particular, is generally seen as the birthplace of agriculture . The first agricultural evidence comes from the Levant , from where it spread to Mesopotamia , enabling the rise of large-scale cities and empires in the region.

In the 4th millennium BCE, this area was more temperate than it is today, and it had fertile soil, two great rivers (the Euphrates and the Tigris), as well as hills and mountains to the north.

The Origins of Agriculture

The birth of agriculture was a pivotal moment in human history that allowed the earliest civilizations to arise in the Fertile Crescent. Despite it being called the "Cradle of Civilization ", we now know that agriculture (and human civilization) also arose independently in other regions of the world. In central America, people domesticated maize and beans, and rice and millet and pigs were first domesticated in China , both without knowledge of earlier advances in the Near East.

The advent of agriculture occurred gradually in the hill country of south-eastern Turkey , western Iran, and the Levant, most likely because the region happened to be home to a wide range of plants and animals that lend themselves to domestication and human consumption. Fig trees were cultivated in modern-day Jordan by around 11,300 BCE. Wheat and goats were domesticated in the Levant by 9000 BCE, followed by peas and lentils in the Fertile Crescent and northern Egypt around 8000 BCE and olive trees in the Eastern Mediterranean by 5000 BCE.

Cattle was first domesticated around 8500 BCE, most likely from wild ox (aurochs) in the Near East. Based on recent genetic analyses of ancient cattle bones, it is estimated that all modern cattle in the world is descended from as few as 80 animals that were originally domesticated.

Horses were domesticated in the western Eurasian steppe by 4000 BCE and spread to the Near East at some point in the late 3rd millennium BCE. Grapevines were domesticated in modern-day Iran around 3500 BCE and spread to the Levant and Egypt by 3000 BCE, marking the end of the transition to agriculture. Even today, 90% of our calories come from foods that were domesticated in this first wave of the agricultural revolution.

Agriculture started most likely because hunter-gatherers who collected grains would have had to take them back to their camp in order to separate the grain from the chaff. During this process, some seeds inevitably fall to the ground. When humans returned to the same campsite the next year, cereals would be growing around the campsite, which they harvested again, causing more seeds to fall. As the amount of cereals around the site increased, the people stayed longer to harvest, eventually turning into semi-nomads with seasonal villages, such as the Natufian culture that flourished circa 12500-9500 BCE.

Over time, some of these semi-nomads decided to stay in their agricultural villages year-round to cultivate cereals, while others would continue as nomads. By 8500 BCE, the Middle East was home to many permanent villages whose inhabitants were primarily farmers. The agricultural revolution had begun. With the increase in food production from agriculture, more human life could be sustained, populations increased, and villages turned into cities that gave rise to the Mesopotamian civilizations. The historian Gwendolyn Leick writes:

By the seventh millennium BCE, the alluvial plains began to be cultivated, and by the fourth millennium, the first cities appeared in response to the need for an efficient agricultural administration. The first documents, pictographs written on clay, concerned the allocation of labor for fields and the distribution of the products. (Leick, 6)

It is important to note that the Fertile Crescent is not the only origin point of agriculture, but that there are other places all over the world where agriculture and the domestication of animals arose without any contact with the Fertile Crescent. Scholar Yuval Noah Harari writes:

Scholars once believed that agriculture spread from a single Middle Eastern point of origin to the four corners of the world. Today, scholars agree that agriculture sprang up in other parts of the world not by the action of Middle Eastern farmers exporting their revolution but entirely independently. People in Central America domesticated maize and beans without knowing anything about wheat and pea cultivation in the Middle East. South Americans learned how to raise potatoes and llamas, unaware of what was going on in either Mexico or the Levant. China's first revolutionaries domesticated rice, millet and pigs. America's first gardeners were those who got tired of combing the undergrowth for edible gourds decided to cultivate pumpkins. New Guineans tamed sugar cane and bananas, while the first West African farmers made African millet, African rice, sorghum and wheat conform to their needs. (Chapter 5)

Geography of the Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent is an ancient geographic region comprised of three primary geographic zones:

• Mesopotamia, mostly located in modern-day Iraq, defined by the alluvial plain of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris
• Upper Mesopotamia in the foothills of the Taurus and Zagros mountains in the north
• The Levant, in modern-day Syria , Lebanon, Israel , Jordan, and Palestine on the Mediterranean seaboard to the west

Due to its varied geography, agriculture in the Fertile Crescent was highly diverse in terms of food sources, regional crop yields, and annual rainfall or irrigation variation (agricultural production could be up to 100 times higher in particularly good years). There were two types of agriculture:

• Dry agriculture without irrigation, where people mostly cultivated cereals and relied on rainfall, which was primarily practiced in the hill country of upper Mesopotamia and the Levant.
• Irrigation agriculture, which was centered in the alluvial plains of Lower Mesopotamia.

Agricultural Advancements

Many harvests were destroyed by drought or flooding. Initially, people developed agriculture in the rainier hilly areas that ensured a more even spread of precipitation throughout the year. As people moved into the floodplains, new agricultural techniques were required.

Artificial irrigation was a key innovation, which underwent significant improvement over time. At first, irrigation was conducted by siphoning water directly from the Tigris-Euphrates river system directly onto the fields using small canals and shadufs – crane-like water lifts that have existed in Mesopotamia since c. 3000 BCE. From the mid-first millennium BCE there is evidence of larger canal networks and reservoirs, most likely organized by the state, requiring interregional cooperation and planning. Fields were often long and narrow, with the narrow edges bordering the canals to maximize irrigation efficiency.

The Urartians were the masters of canal building, and many of their irrigation systems still exist today. The main canals were generally created and maintained by the state and the small ones by the farmers themselves or the local communities. Irrigated farmland, as is still the case today, was under constant threat of salination.

With the rise of centralized power structures and improving technology, aqueducts were introduced to carry water over long distances. The Jerwan aqueduct , the oldest known aqueduct in the world, was constructed by King Sennacherib I of Assyria between 703 and 690 BCE.

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The soil, particularly in the floodplains in the arid climate of Babylonia and Assyria, was prone to dry up, harden, and crack. To keep the soil arable, the plow had to be used. By 3000 BCE plows were known and in wide use – many Assyrian kings boasted to have invented a new, improved type of the plow.

The fields were worked with the help of oxen and a crew of laborers, which grew in size when hired hands were added to the labor force for harvest in spring. The tools used were simple, including sickles with flint blades and paddles for threshing. Wooden plows were likely invented in the 4th millennium BCE, and plows that sowed seeds into the ground were invented by the 2nd millennium BCE.

Due to a Sumerian "Farmer's Almanac", dated to 1700 BCE, we know that Mesopotamians already understood crop rotation and left fields fallow to maintain the fertility of the ground. The practice of using manure to fertilize the soil does not appear to have been known yet, though.

Mesopotamian Crops

The main types of grain that were used for agriculture were barley, wheat, millet, and emmer. Rye and oats were not yet known for agricultural use. In Babylonia, Assyria, and the Hittite lands, barley was the main grain for human use, primarily because it is reasonably salt-tolerant (an important consideration when irrigating crops in the summer heat). It was a widely-used form of payment, and flatbread was made from barley. The smallest unit of weight was the equivalent of one grain (1/22 g). Beer and luxury foods were made from wheat and emmer. Wheat played a minor role as it was less salt-resistant than barley.

Other agricultural products include sesame (derived from the Akkadian word šamaššammu ), which was widely cultivated and used to make oil. Olive oil was produced in the mountains. Flax was used to make linen cloth. Peas were cultivated in Mesopotamia, while lentils were preferred in Palestine. Figs, pomegranate, apple, and pistachio groves were found throughout the Fertile Crescent. In villages and cities of southern Mesopotamia, groves of date palms were common, often with vegetables such as onions, garlic, and cucumbers growing in the shade of the palm trees. The dates were eaten either fresh or dried, providing vital sugars and vitamins. Palmwood was also used in crafts , but not in construction.

Harvest & Storage

Harvest required significant manpower, as there was immense time pressure on completing the harvest before winter set in. Grain was cut with a sickle, dried in shacks, and threshed by driving animals over it to "tread out" the grain. After threshing, the grain was separated from the chaff by winnowing, which was only possible in windy weather. The grain was then either stored in granaries or transported away along the waterways (sometimes even exported to other countries). In the granaries, mongooses were used to protect the store from mice (more so than cats, which were deemed unreliable).

The crop yields of agricultural economies in ancient Mesopotamia were roughly comparable to what traditional Middle Eastern farmers achieved in the 19th and early 20th centuries CE, prior to the advent of modern agricultural practices. Mesopotamia was home to one of the most plentiful agricultural systems in the ancient world.

Agriculture & the Rise of Empires

The societies of Mesopotamia depended largely on agriculture and access to water. Initially, the majority of the land was owned by the palace and the temples, but in the 18th century BCE, large swathes of land were privatized. The smallest unit of land was the ilkum , which was leased by the temple or the palace to a smallholding family. Even though it was legally not inheritable, de facto , the same tenancy agreement continued across multiple generations.

An agricultural surplus was essential to the creation of the first cities and urban societies. Only when farmers' crop yields exceeded their subsistence needs was it possible to sustain the needs of cities. In Mesopotamian society, rulers were very concerned with crop yields as stability and food supply were key to legitimizing their rule. Large canal networks and aqueducts were planned and managed by the state in order to ensure the supply of water to its subjects. Political continuity was paramount to the region's economic well-being, as any break in the dynastic order could cause serious interruption of agricultural activities as well as trade , sometimes with disastrous consequences for the poor.

Recent studies suggest that the rise of centralized states in Mesopotamia (and elsewhere in the world) specifically depended on the abundance of cereal grains that could be levied in taxes to then be transported, stored, and redistributed by the government. In regions of the world where the primary crop consisted of more perishable root or tube vegetables, centralized government arose much later than in regions where the primary crop consisted of grains with a long shelf-life.

It is thanks to agriculture and the abundance of cereals that the great city -states and empires of Mesopotamia were able to rise. Supporting a large-scale urban population and the division of labor into specialized trades was only possible by moving away from subsistence farming to an organized agricultural system that provided enough surplus to feed a large non-farming population. In that sense, agriculture laid the foundation for civilization.

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Bibliography

• DNA traces cattle back to a small herd domesticated around 10,500 years ago | UCL News - UCL – University College London , accessed 20 Sep 2022.
• Edzard, Dietz Otto. Geschichte Mesopotamiensßen. Beck C. H., 2009.
• Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens. Harper, 2020.
• Joram Mayshar, Omer Moav, and Luigi Pascali. "The Origin of the State: Land Productivity or Appropriability?." Journal of Political Economy , Volume 130, Number 4, April 2022.
• Leick, Gwendolyn. The A to Z of Mesopotamia . Scarecrow Press, 2010.
• Michael Jursa. "Agriculture, Ancient Near East." The Encyclopedia of Ancient History , edited by Bagnall, Roger S. et al. Blackwell Publishing, 2013
• Von Soden, W. The Ancient Orient. William B Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1996, 97-103.

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Overview of the Agricultural Revolution Lesson

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In this lesson, students will gain a chronological understanding of the Agricultural Revolution. They will develop an awareness of the changes to agricultural practices such as enclosures and improvements in farm machinery. Students will have the opportunity to achieve this through choosing their own method of learning, from reading and research options, as well as the chance to engage in extension activities. This lesson includes a self-marking quiz for students to demonstrate their learning.

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California Needs an Agricultural Revolution

From the ojai valley, i can see the state’s post-carbon future—and it looks like the ancient past.

Orange orchard in Ojai Valley. Image by Stephanie Pincetl.

by STEPHANIE PINCETL | January 12, 2022

The Ojai Valley in Ventura County is a magical place. Consider its elements: the sweet and intoxicating smell of California citrus blossoms in the spring, the open space preserved by orchards, the seasonal creeks that run free through the cultivated lands, the surrounding chaparral covered hills and mountains.

But the Ojai Valley is also a place in peril. That’s because the water source that keeps this inland Ventura hamlet thriving is nearly dry.

Lake Casitas reservoir was built in the late 1950s when decades of plentiful rain hid the true nature of California’s arid climate. Back then, the official projections for water-resources potential were pretty optimistic. Today, that story has changed dramatically, and any other approach to water supplies seems beyond our conventional ways of water management.

I came to the Ojai Valley with my husband about 15 years ago, when the disruptions to the climate regime still seemed distant. But two consecutive deep droughts have brought water uncertainty front and center.

It’s this fear of water shortages that is dominating conversations and creating antagonisms: farmers versus city dwellers, farmers against farmers, water officials vs. everybody. We all know that the snowpack in the mountains is dwindling, so if we run out of water and average temperatures continue to climb, what then?

I am a professor at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability with several decades of research on California land use, water, energy and the question of sustainability and climate change. I’ve done research with biologists, hydrologists, engineers, climate scientists and public health experts looking at environment and sustainability, environmental justice, policy and politics, and conducted a great deal of quantitative research on water resources. I am also a native Californian, in love with the state.

Thinking about the state’s future and its magnificent resources and agricultural productivity, the fact that much of agriculture today is intertwined with dependence on hydrocarbons—from fertilizers, fumigants and pesticides to diesel and plastics—poses a predicament. These don’t just override the natural conditions, but damage them, seriously. This means that continuing to grow crops and rear livestock using highly consumptive 20th-century methods in a leaner, dryer 21st century will compound ecological crises and implode the agricultural sector. It’s inescapable that in order for California agriculture to survive, and even flourish, with less water and fewer hydrocarbons, we need nothing short of a revolutionary re-envisioning of the future without carbon.

The politics of this change will be enormously contentious, difficult, and protracted. But consider the alternative: The path of agriculture today is toward extinction. A changing climate is here, and water is not something that can be manufactured. With more dry years, and more groundwater extraction, the path toward groundwater depletion is clear. That’s why though what I propose below may seem fanciful and impossible, I offer them as thought pieces, as sketches of a possible future that provides livelihoods and sustenance, a future that the current trajectory cannot deliver.

Before globalization, which is dependent on being able to rapidly ship products anywhere across the world using fossil fuels, people ate far more seasonally. It was unimaginable to eat bell peppers in the wintertime in northern climates, for example. But now, the global south grows crops for the global north to ensure foodstuffs are available all year round. Reduce or eliminate fossil fuels, and a new agriculture will have to emerge for a post-hydrocarbon fuel world that will rely on local and regional resources. People will eat more seasonally and will eat fewer high-energy dense foods, such as meat. Different regions across the U.S. and the world will return to growing what can be grown in those places , supplemented by hot houses heated with compost (for example) in cold regions, or eat mostly tropical crops in tropical regions.

This means California will no longer be a large exporter of food, domestically or, especially, internationally. California agriculture will be primarily destined for Californians. Food will be more expensive and perhaps our diets will be more limited, but that does not mean there necessarily will be less to eat. Rather, we will simply not be able to source the world for our food, often to the detriment of growers here, in Mexico, South America, Africa and elsewhere.

One of the most challenging issues, fundamental to the type of transition described above, will be the question of corporate large-scale land holdings, and the price of land. With dramatically less water available, and the shift away from hydrocarbon agriculture, land prices may plummet on their own. But it may also be that big farms will break up, as they will no longer be viable without water and without the ability to cultivate lands using large-scale, fossil fuel intensive machinery.

Corporate owners might be compensated, but at the pre-water development land costs, and perhaps subtracting the cost of land and water remediation necessary because of the extensive chemical contamination. (Under the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902, which authorized federal water projects, farmers were to sell acreage above 160 acres, or 320 for married couples, at pre-water prices, or pay for the full cost of their share of the project. They never did, and under President Reagan that law was overturned, handing over to large-scale corporate agriculture the investment of the American taxpayer in water delivery systems.) If the return on investment for corporate growers declines, they will exit. And since water will be scarce and fuel for commuting non-existent, turning farmland into housing subdivisions will not be an option.

A new agroecological agriculture will, however, create many new jobs. Though lands that were brought into production by the sheer application of fossil energy will go out of production, and the footprint of agriculture in the state will shrink, many more people will work the land. This has the potential to allow us to adopt more sustainable farming practices, modeled on historical examples of regions with climates such as ours, like the Eastern Mediterranean region where water systems were managed by experts adept at passive water systems, where and when the resource was available.

Peasant farmers grew crops based on knowledge about seeds and traditional practices passed from generation to generation and developed over many centuries. Each skill- and knowledge-base was specific to place—to the soils, flora and fauna, climate, slopes, light, and seasons. Practicing small-scale intensive agriculture, growing a diversity of crops, and applying organic inputs to increase or maintain soil fertility, these land artisans were decision makers responsible for feeding their families and others in the community.

We have such land artisans today, although their skills and knowledge are rarely appreciated. They anchor small towns. They create local economies and connected communities. And they have been advocating for such work for decades.

Back in 1996, the international peasants’ movement came together during the Food and Agriculture Organization World Food Summit in Rome to lay the foundation for a 21st-century approach via a policy framework. The coalition, comprised of working-class farmers—known globally as peasants—and Indigenous communities around the world, pointed to the urgent need for an organized, international response to the crisis facing agriculture. They advocated for practices based on agroecology—agriculture that respects local ecologies and fosters wholesome and productive interactions between plants, animals, and humans in order to keep ecosystems healthy and grow food for humans.

The agriculture movement they have built is based on the understanding of the mutual benefits that accrue when farming and livestock rearing practices respect the long-term need for ecosystem functions to endure. Around the world, organizations like the National Family Farm Coalition in the U.S., the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance , Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa , and Nyéléni Europe and Central Asia Food Sovereignty Network are leading this campaign, which calls for food sovereignty, participation in agricultural policy, and land reform so that workers can retain their land. In addition to farming itself, this movement encompasses occupations including composting, raising beneficial insects, bee keeping, building and maintaining small-scale irrigation systems, manufacturing and maintaining new electric-powered agricultural machinery and processing equipment, food processing, weaving, the making of rope and twine, technical assistance, and local commerce such as distribution, retail, and social services.

Vibrant, modest, local economies will eventually thrive as a result of this agriculture. But none of it will be possible without a politics for a new future, a politics of reclaiming California for the common good, a politics that posits a positive future against an apocalyptic one. It is difficult to construct alternatives within the dominant system, but change does occur, the past is not the present, nor is it destined to be the future.

Take worker cooperatives, for example, which have been growing rapidly, by a net of 35.7 percent since 2013 ; such cooperatives have an average pay ratio, between the highest and lowest paid workers of 2:1, in contrast to the average pay ratio in the corporate world of 303:1. Current labor trends—including people seeming to prefer to stay home than work for poor wages—also represents a possible shift in thinking about commitment to the current system, which may lead to the kind of transformation that enables other shifts.

All we have to do is look to the Central Valley, which produces a quarter of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of the nation’s fruits, nuts and other table products, for the problems California will face if we continue to follow the path we’re headed down now. There, small towns are shrinking or have disappeared. The workers who live near the fields are served by archipelagos of franchise restaurants, gas stations, and chain hotels. Highway 99 rumbles through these towns, often below grade, both destroying the urban fabric and by-passing it, causing the Valley to reek of pollution from heavy truck traffic and diesel-burning locomotives in addition to the tractors and irrigation pumps whose toxic mix of pesticides and herbicides are contaminating the water or the air.

This story of poverty and ill-health will become the story of our state unless we develop a different ethics of practice, one where modesty, and living within our means is the foundation of a better and wholesome future where life of all kinds thrives. It is a pathway along which it will be possible to repair the rift between humans and nature and reconnect humans with the rest of life, upon which we so ineluctably depend. The driving force of this new ethics is about loving place.

I see glimpses of this other future in the Ojai Valley. Ojai is a transliteration of the Chumash word A’hwai or “moon,” and vestigial ancient oaks that the Chumash lived with still dot the orchards and town. For those who choose to live here, learning to farm within the limits of this small place will ensure the viability of the town and the surrounding agricultural land.

This means learning about place. It means learning about its groundwater resources—how to reinfiltrate stormwater effectively when it does rain (and it will, buckets), and then applying it carefully through up to date and well-maintained drip systems, and ensuring there is enough mulch to maintain soil moisture and build soil fertility. And it means planting locally appropriate plants in gardens, refraining from building individual swimming pools, being thoughtful and aware of limited water resources, and treating it as precious and life-giving.

The idea of living with limits needs to reach the Valley. In response to our changing climate, rather than bring in more water, despite the obvious fact that water from elsewhere does not exist and/or has been long promised to others ahead in the hopeful queue, the Valley should invest in proven and reliable groundwater resources that do exist here and can be managed for long-term sustainable yield. This does not represent hardship; it represents recognition of place and living in that place, fully.

Similarly, a new path for California may seem revolutionary in its vision as it will mean dissolving current systems, reappropriating land through expropriation for the benefit of the many, and insisting on mutualism and collaboration for new social organizations. But it’s a vision that can be possible if we decide this is the future we want, and resolve to follow a new ethic, one of mutual respect, one of compassion, and one that is aimed toward nurturing life.

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World history

Course: world history   >   unit 1.

• The Neolithic Revolution and early agriculture
• The dawn of agriculture
• The spread of agriculture
• Where did agriculture come from?

Early civilizations

• Social, political, and environmental characteristics of early civilizations
• Why did human societies get more complex?
• Neolithic Revolution and the birth of agriculture

• The term civilization refers to complex societies, but the specific definition is contested.
• The advent of civilization depended on the ability of some agricultural settlements to consistently produce surplus food, which allowed some people to specialize in non-agricultural work, which in turn allowed for increased production, trade, population, and social stratification.
• The first civilizations appeared in locations where the geography was favorable to intensive agriculture.
• Governments and states emerged as rulers gained control over larger areas and more resources, often using writing and religion to maintain social hierarchies and consolidate power over larger areas and populations.
• Writing allowed for the codification of laws, better methods of record-keeping, and the birth of literature, which fostered the spread of shared cultural practices among larger populations.

Degrees of complexity

First civilizations, what do civilizations have in common, what do you think.

• When does a complex society become a civilization?
• What factors were most important to establishing and maintaining a civilization?
• Do you think that social hierarchies are necessary for civilization?
• Are state-level political structures necessary for civilization? Or, can independent cities with a shared culture be a civilization?
• See Christian, David: Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (University of California Press, 2011).
• See Christian, David: Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History .
• See Spodek, Howard: The World's History (New Jersey, Pearson, 2006) 46-47.
• See Fernández-Armesto, Felipe: Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years (Free Press, 1996) 78.
• See Spodek, The World's History , 54-61.
• See Bulliet, Richard W. et. al.: The Earth and its Peoples: A Global History (Boston, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011) 24-29; Spodek, The World's History , 51-54; and Strayer, Robert W. and Eric W. Nelson, Ways of the World: a Global History (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2016) 71-75.

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Can Mongolia feed the population with carbon mitigation to fortify nationally determined contribution?

• Bold, Ankhtuya
• Cui, Shenghui
• Balt, Suvdantsetseg
• Huang, Yunfeng
• Tumendalai, Davaadalai

Over 195 countries developed Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement to mitigate CEs (CE). Mongolia commits to a 22.7% reduction in CE by 2030 under the NDC goal. The study assessed the CE impact of local food production on the NDC of ceasing food imports under the Food Revolution Program (FRP). Findings indicated that Mongolia could not sustainably feed the population solely with domestic foods while achieving carbon mitigation goals concurrently. Relying on domestic production, it was projected that there would be a 7% increase in CE within agricultural food production, which constitutes 15% of the total emissions of the agriculture sector. The NDC targets an 18% (5238 Gg CO 2eq ) reduction in the agriculture sector by 2030; the study concluded that the mitigation goal would drop to 16.5% if foods are produced domestically under the FRP. This underscores the necessity of a strategic combination of local production (such as carrots, hen eggs, and rapeseed) and imports (like cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, and chicken from the People's Republic of China) could effectively mitigate the CE. From a national perspective, combining import and local production proves beneficial; however, on the global scale, prioritizing local food production would be valuable to reduce the CE in food transportation and imported food production.

• Nationally determined contribution;
• Agriculture