Anthro 250

I don’t think agriculture was they worst mistake of all time. Although there were some downfalls to it I think the benefits outweigh the bad effects. In this first part I will talk about the positive effects of agriculture. The first positive effect is that it takes less energy to plant than it does to hunt and gather food. It could take a long time to find animals or plants compared to planting some seeds and knowing there will be food. The second effect is that with agriculture it made it possible to store food and always have access to it. For example a rancher can always have access to his cattle rather than hunting for dinner. The third reason I believe agriculture was a step in the right direction is because it made it possible to store food for long periods of time. In the winter it was much easier to use all of the food you grew over summer rather than having to hunt in the cold. After people started growing plants and farming they had a lot more time on their hands as well. This time was used to learn certain skills and make their lives better by building houses or tools. One effect that is noticeable in todays world is that agriculture led to jobs. With all of the farms and ranches in the world today it takes a lot of workers to keep them up and running. This was a big step because it gave people a better quality of life. Some of the negative effects of agriculture include disease, lack of nutrition, dependency, overpopulation, and the start of social classes. Many people believe agriculture was the cause of disease. It led to overcrowding and with that came disease and disorders. When we started planting crops it caused us to have a lack of variety. Instead of eating all different types people relied on what would grow in abundance leading to malnourishment. We are very dependent on the crops we grow and the different types of animals we eat. Foe example in Ireland during the potato famine many families died because they could not grow food to feed themselves. Without the skills to hunt they had no options of what to do. One of the biggest downfalls to agriculture was that it led to overpopulation. The worlds population is on the rise and before long there will not be enough resources to support us. This happened because of agriculture, if we still lived off the land it would limit the amount of people on the world and there would be far less people. The last negative effect I would like to talk about is that it led to the start of social class. When people were