A History of World Agriculture: From the Neolithic Age to the Current Crisis

by Marcel Mazoyer, Laurence Roudart, James H. Membrez (Translator)

Only once we understand the long history of human efforts to draw sustenance from the land can we grasp the nature of the crisis that faces humankind today, as hundreds of millions of people are faced with famine or flight from the land. From Neolithic times through the earliest civilizations of the ancient Near East, in savannahs, river valleys and the terraces created by the Incas in the Andean mountains, an increasing range of agricultural techniques have developed in response to very different conditions. These developments are recounted in this book, with detailed attention to the ways in which plants, animals, soil, climate, and society have interacted.
Mazoyer and Roudart’s A History of World Agriculture is a path-breaking and panoramic work, beginning with the emergence of agriculture after thousands of years in which human societies had depended on hunting and gathering, showing how agricultural techniques developed in the different regions of the world, and how this extraordinary wealth of knowledge, tradition and natural variety is endangered today by global capitialism, as it forces the unequal agrarian heritages of the world to conform to the norms of profit.
During the twentieth century, mechanization, motorization and specialization have brought to a halt the pattern of cultural and environmental responses that characterized the global history of agriculture until then. Today a small number of corporations have the capacity to impose the farming methods on the planet that they find most profitable. Mazoyer and Roudart propose an alternative global strategy that can safegaurd the economies of the poor countries, reinvigorate the global economy, and create a livable future for mankind.

Genres: History, Agriculture, Nonfiction, Science, Politics, Technology, Food

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Bob Tingleff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be Ag 1a, History 1a, and Econ 1a

[Daniel Royse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative, but a little dull. Although based on the topic of the book I don't think they were shooting to be an "edge of your seat, thriller".

[Jalina Pannafino]

An excellent resource for the historical evolution of agriculture and its impacts on regional development of capital from resources.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

quero ter o meu 20 no exame

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A far-ranging work that mixes Earth-shaking insights with highly technical futzing with numbers and graphs.

This book should have been published as two separate works:

- a worldwide history of agriculture from its origins up to the present day
- an explanation of the role of agriculture and trade in the current problem of global poverty

The first 3/4 of the book addresses the history part, and does so very well indeed. The last 1/4 addresses global poverty, and while the text provides interesting insights and ideas, it becomes too bogged down in number-crunching and academic prose; to me it was like reading (what I imagine to be) a white paper for the World Bank, or something similar.

The authors are Frenchmen who come from rural backgrounds themselves, and their passion is evident for farming and for those who practice this demanding art and lifestyle. They traveled the world and talked with peasants in many countries. They seem to know every detail of what it takes to get food and other goods out of the soil in the various parts of the globe.

The authors declare things which shocked me to read. Perhaps the biggest of these is the observation that agriculture and humanity have progressed and expanded in tandem with the progressive deforestation of Earth, a process that has continued more or less unchecked since the end of the last Ice Age at the rate of about 1 km a year, and which proceeds to this day. For the last 10,000 years we've been shaving the forests from Earth, and are working on the last pockets of primeval forest in places like Amazonia and the Congo. I found this thought to be mighty sobering.

The book provides a detailed account of the different styles of agriculture that have developed over that time, presented as a series of "revolutions." Each revolution was precipitated by a crisis of food shortage, and each enabled a fresh burst of productivity and human population and cultural growth. The revolutions that have occurred as a result of mechanization and the burning of fossil fuels have been especially profound and productive. The explosion of human population in the last 200 years has been enabled by the explosion in farm productivity.

But the hearts of the authors are with the poor peasant farmers of the world, the 1 billion or so poorest people on Earth. The authors make a strong case that the explosion of farm productivity, in driving down the prices of agricultural goods, has itself been the engine of worldwide poverty. It has forced countless millions of peasants off the land and sent them to the shantytowns of the developing world in search of work. World poverty will only get worse unless this mechanism is changed.

The authors provide suggestions for how this might come about. They are statist and "European" in flavor. The authors point with approval to the overall success of European efforts to protect the various national and regional agricultures there, and it is interesting to note that some countries with the most protected and subsidized agriculture--Switzerland and South Korea--are also among the most prosperous and competitive in the world.

While I was reading this book I thought for sure I would be giving it 5 stars here on Goodreads, but the descent into wonkishness in the last part of the book had me skimming sections instead of reading them in detail. This book should have been split in two, and each of the volumes could very likely have been a 5-star outing. But this is still very much worth a read, especially if you are concerned about the environment and world poverty.

[Ivan Savić · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative read. The book explains in detail agriculture from the beginings to modern times. The only downside I find is that it mostly concentrates on europe. It briefly mentions some of the other origins of agriculture, but not all, and not in greater detail as europe's agriculture is explained.

[Alok Ghimire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a valuable read. To see history reduced to cereal yields, soil degradation, deforestation etc. puts into perspective the symbiotic relationship between Earth and humans and every living organism. The differences between systems of agriculture and how people have learned to make the soil yield to their wishes is a deeply personal study, seeing how we participate in this history every time we sit down to eat. The book's thesis is this - that the current agricultural systems being practiced are too different in their yields to be able to compete fairly with each other and that a different international trading system, organized into regions with similar productive capacity, is needed for the least equipped peasants to be able to catch up to the most equipped ones. The mass exodus of poor peasantry from the countryside is unsustainable; the only way to uplift this mass is to protect their agriculture to a significant degree and to increase their purchasing power so that they can invest into machinery and become more productive. The arguments are all solid except for one major blindspot - development in other sectors of industry can absorb a large portion of peasants if foreign capital is utilized in sectors of the economy that do not take away major jobs from the foreign capital's home country. For example, a tourism industry funded largely by foreign capital can absorb poor workers while absorbing further foreign capital of the tourists. The low purchasing power of peasants who become workers is more or less irrelevant in this kind of development. It remains the case however that a degree of protectionism will always be necessary to aid even the most productive farms of the developing countries.

[Martin Empson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mazoyer and Roudart's work is an examination of the history of agriculture - from the earliest hunter-gatherers who would have nurtured and protected plants, to the slash and burn cultivation that replaced them, through the various permanent "post-forest agrarian" cultures that saw the growth and strengthen of class society, to feudal and eventually capitalist agriculture. It is a monumental book, both readable and interesting as well as in depth and well researched.

I highly recommend it. Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...

[Daniel Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read although recent economic progress in the last 20 - 30 years makes some predictions out dated. A fair amount of political ideology seeps through the authors writing, which is not necessarily bad but may not be what the author was expecting. Could be better if it was less euro centric.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ouvrage très complet, parfois longuet. Illustrations très bien.
Relire les parties sur l'Europe et la crise agraire et crise globale.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This goes well with Poverty By America.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and profoundly insightful, this book is well worth the read despite being somewhat of a slog to get through.

[Matty Demont · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ambitious book provides an overview of the history of agriculture in the world. It however focuses mostly on European agriculture. I like how, for the sake of completeness, it starts with how ants practice agriculture by growing fungi and holding and milking aphids.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

History with quite a bit of a political agenda. There is a lot of agricultural theory in here, explaining how different agricultural systems led to higher yields based on the amount of work, land, people, etc. The authors lost me at their conclusions, and although I'm sympathetic to where they're coming from, I thought their desire to push for a specific agenda got in the way of telling a good story about how agriculture works.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kitabı bir sunuma hazırlanmak için, göz atmak amacı ile almıştım. Ama bu son derece önemli konu hakkında yazılmış iyi kitaplardan birine denk geldiğim için de kendimi şanslı hissediyorum. Sunum bittikten sonra da kitaba devam edip okumayı tamamladım. Özellikle insanlığın gıda ve tarım ile sınavını anlamak isteyenlere tavsiye ederim.