Into the Past to Greet the Future


Another grey damp day is upon us. It has been raining since late yesterday afternoon. Still the temperatures have been warner than normal, although briefly yesterday it felt cold enough to snow, fortunately, it didn't. It is still too early. I don't know if La Nina is a factor in this unusual weather or not. I keep anticipating a colder, earlier, winter but Fall just keeps hanging on.

Last week we began our look at the history of agriculture and the changes that have taken place over the years since the early days of Ancient Sumeria, a society that still is capable of grabbing our attention. This may well be the point where humanity began to change the fundamental relationship that they held with the Earth. Life became stationary and people settled down and worked the land, rather than relying on Nature to provide for them.

The plow is credited with being the most significant technological change that the agriculture was to develop. It enabled the farmer to cultivate large areas in a comparatively short space of time and to do so over and over again. The first American steel plow was invented by John Deere. Since then the plow has grown beyond being a farming tool, it has a cultural icon and a impressive element of historical memorabilia.

When we consider the tools that transformed society we need to also consider the impact that transformation had on how we changed as well. The history of agriculture is about the history of food production and what and how we, as a society, we able to meet our daily food needs. We were able to increase our food production as we developed new technology but what was the cost of this increase in production. Did it set off a circular effect that calls for a serious rethinking about how we produce food? Ideas such as urban livestock and community shared agriculture or do we look to ever new technological advances to meet the growing demand?

I believe that what we need is innovative thinking whick is able to look into our past while considering our future and not get lost in the silver bullet approach to problem solving. Next week we take a look at the mechanization of the farm and the role of the tractor.

The copyright of the article Into the Past to Greet the Future in From Field To Table is owned by Bob Ewing. Permission to republish Into the Past to Greet the Future in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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