Our Civilization Could Die if We Don’t Save Agriculture
photo by Anna Kofron
Originally posted on agdaily.com
Written by Lori Sallet
Thirteen thousand years ago, around 11,500 BCE, the first glimmers of cultivation began to emerge in the Euphrates Valley in what is now Syria. Tell Abu Hureyra, the archeological site believed to be the place farmers first cultivated cereal crops such as wheat and rye, is today submerged under Lake Assad, the reservoir of the Tabqa Dam. A metaphor I am afraid, for what we are doing to our society when we ignore the perils faced by farmland, farming, and farmers today.
When societies ignored problems in agriculture, time after time, these civilizations collapsed. What may not be written in our history books and only known well by archeologists who study the Neolithic Era, the era of transition to farming, problems in agricultural management, overuse of destructive agricultural practices that lead to environmental and man-made climate-related problems, mismanagement of land and labor, and ignorant behavior can lead to the end of times.