Crop Production
Beginning about 12,000 years ago, the human population began a trend that completely changed the way we, as a race, evolved. For the first time in history, humans pushed beyond the restraints of traditional hunting and gathering, into domestication and farming. It was a change that would not only take thousands of years to prove worthy, but also may have set us back on the evolutionary path at the time. Along the path to this point, we have been constantly changing and finding new ways to produce and maximize the yield of the crops we sow. Have these changes been successful or detrimental to us? The following will search into answering this question. Since the beginning, increased crop production has been the ultimate goal of the farmer. The very basic advances toward this included fertilization and rotation of crops. These simple steps alone took thousands of years to come about. Domestication perhaps, was the first process to actually take place. Evidence of this is prevalent throughout many parts of the world, as far back as 11,000 years. Detection of this was done by comparing wild varieties of the product to the preferred and produced varieties. Changes in size are the most common differences, especially among types of
grain. However, this domestication came about mostly through the selection process. Since the people naturally selected the larger more hearty vegetable or grain, those larger specimens of the species would go on to produce the next generation. Though this may seem primitive, it has led to the varieties we see and eat today. Another way to further sustain the needs of human demand, is to make completely arid regions into fertile lands. During the early Egyptian era, once a year the Nile would spill over its banks, turning a dry, sandy region, into rich growing plains for a few months. The Roman era tapped the water resource even further by building aqueducts. This allowed the fields to spread out more distant from the river itself. Today, we utilize both of our ancestors discoveries to the fullest. The Colorado river alone, has turned parts of the Mojave into the greatest agricultural regions in North America. In some places, the closest natural water resource is 150 miles away, yet farms flourish along the aqueduct. Along with our discovered technologies, we have come up with chemicals to kill off what has plagued our crops from the beginning. Herbicides and pesticides are commonly used practices all over the world. What better way to bear more fruit, than to kill off the natural predat
Some common words found in the essay are:
North America, Native Americans, , pushed beyond, water resource,
Approximate Word count = 877
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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