Between the 17th and 19th centuries, Britain experienced a dramatic increase in agricultural productivity known as the British Agricultural Revolution. This "revolution" consisted of a variety of improvements to agricultural methods which more or less took place simultaneously. Farmers developed new methods of crop rotation, began cultivating land that had been marshy or forested, and planted new crops such as the turnip.
The technology of agriculture has continued to evolve over the years. Plows and other farming implements improved, and the mechanical combine harvester—a machine that harvests grain—was invented in the s. In the early s, the horse-drawn plow was a catalyst for introducing more machinery on the farm. The first tractors were steam-powered engines designed to haul agricultural equipment and were too expensive for most farmers.
The gasoline-powered tractor was invented in The last century has seen a host of changes in the way farming is carried out and in the way farm produce shows up on our tables. In , a trucking executive complained during a round of golf about how the summer heat was spoiling much of the food shipped by his company. His companion, Joseph Numero, jokingly suggested refrigerating the trailers.
The idea stuck, and Numero went on to start a refrigerated transport company with the help of inventor Frederick Jones. Meanwhile, the development of hybrid seed , and particularly hybrid corn, revolutionized agriculture. Hybrids improve the results of planting, and often produce plants and fruits that are hardier and more uniform. Hybrid seeds contributed to the increased agricultural output of the second half of the 20th century.
Despite these great improvements, other changes arrived with controversy. 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 around 6, B. The world's oldest known rice paddy fields, discovered in eastern China in , reveal evidence of ancient cultivation techniques such as flood and fire control. In Mexico, squash cultivation began around 10, 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, years ago, the first directly dated corn cob dates only to around 5, years ago. Corn later reached North America, where cultivated sunflowers also started to bloom some 5, years ago.
This is also when potato growing in the Andes region of South America began. Cattle, goats, sheep and pigs 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, to 10, 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.
Photograph by Robert Madden. Fertile Crescent. Near East. Stone Age. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. Media If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer.
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Q J Econ. Trinkaus E. Early Modern Humans. Annu Rev Anthropol. Diamond J. New York, New York: W. Norton and Company; Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication.
Macronutrient contributions of insects to the diets of hunter-gatherers: A geometric analysis. J Hum Evol. Vasey D. An Ecological History of Agriculture: 10, B. The latest woolly mammoths Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach in Europe and Asia: A review of the current evidence.
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Energy-efficient food production to reduce global warming and ecodegradation: The use of edible insects. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. Discov Mag. Price TD. Social Inequality at the Foundations of Agriculture. Foundations of Social Inequality.
New York: Platinum Press; Pryor LF. The invention of the plow. Comp Stud Soc Hist. Hillel D. Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil. Cohen JE.
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