Apr 17, 2009

Farmers: It is Time to Take Over

I read a book a few months ago called “Guns, Germs, and Steel.” The author, Jared Diamond, was exploring this question: In terms of technology, how did some cultures develop faster than others?

More specifically, why did Europeans conquer Native Americans and not the other way around?

The obvious answer, of course, is that the Europeans had ships, horses, cannons and infectious diseases, while the Native Americans did not. But why was that? How did the Europeans end up developing all those things while the Native Americans were left behind?

The answer, according to “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (published in 1997), has many layers, but lying near the bottom – as it lies near the bottom of just about everything to do with human history – is agriculture.

The (extremely simplified) story goes something like this: Thanks to geography, there was a greater variety of domesticable plants and animals available to ancient hunter-gatherers in Europe and Asia than was available in other continents. Those plants and animals spawned the first farmers, who spawned the first villages, cities and, eventually, civilizations. As a result, European and Asian civilizations had a head start on everybody else.

As I was reading about all of this, a thought struck me: Farmers have been fundamental to civilization since its beginnings, but they’ve never gotten much respect. More often than not, they’ve been mistreated by the very social classes they helped to create.

There must have been a point when just about everybody was a farmer, but as soon as populations got big enough, people started to opt out of food growing. Pretty soon, new occupations started showing up: the stonecutter, the artisan, the scribe, the soldier – the king.

But everybody still had to eat, which meant farmers were still needed. But instead of respecting the farmer’s position as the cornerstone of civilization, the king usually turned him into a peasant, a serf or a slave. The poor old food grower was left all alone at the bottom of the social pile.

Why was he such a pushover? He could have banded together with the other farmers and refused to grow any crops. Starve the king out! Then they would have gotten some respect.

That’s the thing about you farmers. You’ve got a lot of power, but you don’t seem to take advantage of it. You’re too nice. It’s time for you guys to roll up your sleeves and get nasty.

Then again, if you were the kind of people who wanted to take over the world, I suppose you wouldn’t be farming. Guess things are the way they are for a reason. Oh, well. Could be worse.

Still, taking farmers for granted seems to continue to this day. Even with a bad economy and more people than usual out of work, job seekers won’t even consider farming – even temporarily. I’ll overhear somebody talk about the frustrations of looking for a job in this climate, and I’ll say something like, “You know, there’s always farming. It’s not doing so bad right now.”

The usual reaction is a scoff, followed by a sip of mocha latte, pinky finger extended. They assume I’m joking. But I’m really not. I might have reacted the same way a few years ago, but now that I have some familiarity with the agricultural industry, I think it’s kind of cool. I might even grow my own food one day – after I conquer the world.