Is The Root of All Evil…Food Production?
By: Bettina Baker
Tags: Farming, Pandemic, Adhd, History, Middle East

Going back to our 5th Grade History Lesson, modern humans migrated out of Africa between 100,000–50,000 years ago. The first major stop on their world tour was ….the South West Asia? New North Africa? MENA? Basically, all terms Eurocentric textbooks called the Middle East. In addition to lighter skin and straighter hair, these humans were evolving due to an increase in population size and density.

In laymen’s terms:

Catoosa, Georgia has 67,000 residents over 162 sq mi, or 413 residents per square mile Grand Concourse, The Bronx has 76,000 residents PER SQUARE MILE

To put into context Catoosa represents Africa and The Concourse being the Ancient Levant (another term for the Middle East) in regards to population size and density during the same period.

Now way before farmers’ markets, Fairway, and Crown Fried, most of modern human existence (300,000 ~ 12,000 BCE) had been sustained by hunting and gathering. But it was in Mesopotamia (another term) where the earliest sites of food production spurred the Neolithic Revolution. Soon, the founding crops of the Fertile Crescent (another term?!!) led the spread of farming to the region’s northern neighbor, Europe.

What’s your point, Sis?

When I got my first addy ‘script, I set numerous goals to make the most of my milligrams, including finishing the densest book I’d picked up since The Coldest Winter Ever (Sidebar: I’m ret-tay for that sequel). Long story short, my man Jared Diamond proclaims The Fates of Human Societies can be narrowed down to three proximate factors: Guns, Germs & Steel.

…diverse epidemic diseases of humans evolved in areas with many wild plant and animal species suitable for domestication, partly because the resulting crops and livestock helped feed dense societies in which epidemics could maintain themselves, and partly because the diseases evolved from germs of the domestic animals themselves.

(Sidebar #2: This is why black people like they meat cookedT, like my brunch bacon!)

During my time-blind journey to figure out “How the HELL did we get here?” I’d come to understand how the rise of food production may have led to a majority of the world’s evil.

Maybe I’m blind, ‘cuz I’m not seeing your point…

Do you know what would happen if you had to source your sustenance? No, I don’t mean the hellish game women put their men through when figuring out what they want to eat. But what happens if you had to farm your own food for yourself and your family?

YOU’D MIND YOUR DAMN BUSINESS.

But you know what happens when you DON’T have to worry about your next meal? Sure, it would encourage creativity by supporting non-food-producing specialists and craftsmen. But food surpluses to feed entire towns, states, or nations? Now you’ve encouraged bureaucrats, imperialists, monarchies, and governments to step in and

REGULATE YOUR DAMN BUSINESS.

‘Dem boys don’t have the lowly farmers’ best interests in mind. They’re worried about agriculture productivity with zero regards to the destructive environmental impact. This leads to “entrepreneurs” looking to skirt regulations by selling back-door bushmeats in unsanitary wet markets.

Need I remind you how epidemics evolve in dense societies that feed off domesticated animals, the original disease carriers? Now:

Take the former group’s disregard Mix in the latter group’s ambitions Lay it over stratified societies

Do you know what you get?