The evolution of human beings has been a long process that has gotten us to where we are today. Humans of today have evolved greatly from our ancestors, from hunting, to tools, to planting, to medicines, to machines, to rapidly growing technology, and it continues on. Around 10,000-13,000 years ago, our ancestors underwent a major change in life style and behavior. The transition from being hunter-gatherers to farmers was a huge step in history and has caused many changes in health, habits, way of living, and medicine. This development in human history has been called the Neolithic Revolution were humans learned to domesticate animals, cultivate crops, and build tools (historyworld). Scientists explain this phenomenon due to the change in climate. Around 15,000 years ago, the last Ice Age ended; thus causing more abundant plants to grow (AMBIO). This serge in plant life lead to annual plants to cycle seasonally, leaving dormant seeds. With the right soil, seeds, and weather, hunter-gatherers liked the idea of settling down and farming emerged.
The climate change also created specialization of certain crops in certain geographical locations. For example, these crops are very popular to produce in a special place; maize in Mexico, potatoes in the Andes, and rice from the banks of the Yangtze River (AMBIO). Since then, the processes and systems of agricultural procedures have advanced over time to be more efficient and abundant.
Not only did the climate boom the start of agricultural practices, but still today and in the future, the climate will continue to affect farming. The challenges we have had to face and continue to face include; increasing temperature, changes in environment conditions, and photoperiod… all of which affect plant life (Slater). Photoperiod means the duration of an organism's daily exposure to light, considered especially with regard to the effect of the exposure on growth and development (dictionary).
Basically, humans will need to proceed adapting to the changes of the climate. Like in the Neolithic Revolution, humans could live more comfortably because of the new temperate regions that were created. But, the animals that hunter-gatherers prayed on could not adjust to the new climates and had to move to cooler regions (historyworld). For example, the bison and mammoths (which became extinct due to the climate change) moved away while the humans adapted to the temperate zone and stayed there. Also in the temperate zone, plants grew easily. The humans decided to band the hunting of the few bison around and stuck to putting in the time to cultivate food and adapted to the new way of life.
Even though in reality hunter-gatherers had better health compared to when cultivation first began, agriculture has changed the lives of humans. Agriculture has evolved and will keep changing through out time due to the ever-changing climate. From the Ice Age, to temperate regions, to the theory of global warming, farmers today have to keep up with whatever climate is thrown at them to produce food. “Climate change is likely to increase the unreliability of farming systems”(Slater). But this statement is untrue, as humans have proven to adapt and make any changes to technology and procedures to continue improving and producing food that sustains the populations’ food supply.
Sources:
AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 37(sp14):498-501. 2008. http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1579/0044-7447-37.sp14.498.
Slater, Rachel. Climate Change: Implications for DFID’s Agriculture Policy. March 2008.
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab63
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/photoperiod
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