What I found interesting this week was the evolution of food systems, from it’s beginning to it’s present forms. I was previously unaware of the early history of such systems, and of the term “Agarian Revolution”. The lifestyles of humans have evolved dramatically. In a hunter gatherer society, there wasn’t any long term settlement, food was consumed as it was available, not leaving humans much time to revolutionize nutrition or give room for innovation. However, as these evolved into settlements, and communities, humans had to become more ‘creative’ with their nutrition, innovation and figuring out how to trade one resource for another was necessary when abandoning a nomadic lifestyle for a long term settlement. Eventually, food became a form of currency, and structures took place within settlements to accommodate a forming economy and class system. (Ultimately becoming a patriarchal society). It is interesting to learn how simple trading (sugar and coffee for tea and silks) evolved into the modern food systems we have now through different phases of industrialization. The involvement of fuels such as coal powered factories and allowed production to accommodate large labor forces and produce a larger volume at a faster pace.
Meat production is particularly intriguing. At the beginning of time, meat consumption was particularly crude, hunted caught by necessity, consumed in smaller quantities to survive, since meat does not keep very long. The modern meat industry, tons of additives are put into products for preservation of shelf life and minimize waste. Additionally, large amounts of antibiotics are fed to livestock to speed up production and growth. According to Huffington Post, “In 2011, more than 80 percent of antibiotics produced were fed to livestock.” This really adds perspective to the quantity of our meat consumption as well.