Omnivore's Dilemma Discussion Reflection

After last night's discussion, I was lead to a whole new series of thoughts about the reading. A recurring theme throughout the evening's discourse was the impact of agriculture on nature, and what that means to modern civilization. Pollan argues that agriculture has shaped the natural world and humanity more than any other event in history, including wars. This is a novel argument, and to a point I agree.

Agriculture has many little known influences throughout history. We discussed the topic of bird poop as a factor in World War II. Throughout history, armies have tried to conquer more fertile lands, and typically the nations with better agricultural abilities have been much more well off. From this point of view, agriculture has very much shaped the fate of humanity.

Naturally speaking, we examined the problem in Haiti of the mudslides and natural disasters that happen because of overfarming in its initial colonization. There's no doubt that agriculture has had an impact there. One could also easily argue that the influx of immigration to America over the centuries is strongly tied to agriculture; after all, the main point of slavery was to pick cotton in the South.One of the theories for Easter Island being deserted after some time is that people who lived there eventually farmed the island dry of trees and natural resources, thus starving.

One thing I like to ponder tangentially related to these points is the futuristic concept of space colonization. How will agriculture impact that? As we've seen from exploration of the earth, agriculture drove a lot of wars, colonization of certain places while not others, and food is undoubtedly required to conquer new territory. The answer could possible lie in hydroponics, but there's a long way to go before we're at the point of growing fields on the moon.