The Inconvenient Truth About Agriculture
‘If you tell someone the truth, try to make them laugh at the same time…otherwise they will kill you.’
(Bertrand Russell)
Introduction
The facts expressed in the following document come by way of the respected fields of anthropology, archeology, biology, geology and genetics, who have provided us with a pretty accurate ‘road map’ of genus Homo’s circuitous journey from primate to super-human.
Geologists have uncovered empirical evidence – dating back to the Late Miocene (approx. 8 million years ago) – of a major drought affecting sub-Saharan Africa. The drought (which lasted for a couple million years) was caused by a change in ocean currents due to rising ocean levels towards the end of a waning ice age. The drought caused much of the African forest canopy to wither and dry up and this in turn caused some tree-dwelling primates to abandon the trees and begin foraging for food on the open prairies and savannahs. Survival on the open savannahs was dangerous with all sorts of predators roaming the grasslands in search of prey. Out of necessity, a survival technique the primates quickly adopted was leaning back on their hind legs and extending their full body length upwards to allow for an elevated and panoramic view of their immediate surroundings.
After millions of years the technique of standing on two feet (bi-pedalism), caused the primate’s skeletal structure (incl. bones, joints, ligaments and muscles) to genetically adapt, and accelerated the evolutionary process that would eventually lead to us Homo sapiens. As stated, this took millions of years and like all exponential processes, nothing much happened until around the appearance of Homo habilis (2.5 million years ago). H. habilis was a game changer, to say the least. A cluster of innovative factors, including (1) the use of fire, (2) the subsequent transition from a plant and insect diet to a high protein meat-based diet, (3) the added dexterity of opposable thumbs, (4) tool making (cutting blades, spear and arrow heads), (5) development of language and (6) communal hunting practices, etc., all converged and caused the H. habilis brain to hyper-expand in size which led to the dawning of the age of our sub-species, the Homo sapiens.
The primate brain – around the time of the African drought – measured approx. 350cc. The advanced Homo sapien brain is approx. 1350cc today which represents an increase of 300%, with the bulk of that growth occurring post H. habilis.
In the 150 million year history of placental mammalians (which includes us) there has never been an instance where the brain of any single mammalian subspecies has grown by more than 10-15% (relative to body mass) during the same time frame that witnessed the 300% growth of genus Homo’s brain. Thus the term ‘biological aberration’. This irrefutable factoid has ‘meltdown’ written all over it. Why? Because the hyper-accelerated growth of Homo sapien’s brain endowed it with the unprecedented ability (perhaps dis-ability) to arbitrarily manufacture (synthesize) ideas. Unprecedented. The witless and hapless humanoids really didn’t know what hit them. Earlier inventions and innovations (tool making, fire, weapons, language, communal hunting and a meat-based diet) caused a ratcheting effect which led to more brain growth which then led to more sophisticated inventions and innovations. These factors combined, culminated (most tragically) in the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry.
The Truth About Agriculture
Think about it. The global population of human hunter gatherers just prior to the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry (raising livestock) was approximately five to six million. The earliest evidence of agricultural activity and raising livestock occurred almost simultaneously in the ‘fertile crescent’ region of western Persia and dates back to around 8,000 years BCE. It took these two innovations between 2-3 thousand years to incubate and mature before they became the dominant practices in the eastern hemisphere. That earlier figure of 5-6 million hunter gatherers (pre-ag) remained fairly consistent for about 25 thousand years leading up to agriculture. Had the practices of agriculture and animal husbandry not been invented, the projected population of human hunter gatherers (for this, the 21st century) would have increased by no more than one million.
Next, we will juxtapose the above figure (five to six million) with the current population of modern, advanced, progressive super-humans living here on Planet Earth in the twenty-first century…2023 to be exact. Eight billion. That’s E-I-G-H-T B-I-L-L-I-O-N!!! And, according to the United Nation population projection committee, human population is expected to top out at between 10-11 billion towards the end of the century. Ten to eleven billion, compared to 5-6 million (pre-ag) represents an approximate growth factor of 2000…that’s 2000 times the population in only 7-8 thousand years since agriculture began to get up and walk around on its own.
What…in the hell…happened!!!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that something went terribly, terribly wrong on Planet Earth. A two-thousand-fold increase in human population in only a few thousand years is absolutely ‘freakish’, frightening, outrageous and unfathomable. And what’s even more frightening is that the above statistics – horrendous as they may seem – hardly even show up on the super-human’s radar. I’ve been listening to the language coming out of these big environmental conferences; Paris Agreement, Copenhagen, COP this and COP that, as far back as the Rio Summit and the Tokyo Accord and rarely hear even a mention about lethal over-population issues or the Earth-destructive practices of the global livestock industry.
Direct Correlation
The point is; there appears to be a direct correlation between the phenomenal (explosive) growth of the Homo sapien brain (post H. habilis) and the currently unfolding meltdown. A direct correlation between the super-human brain as a biological aberration – any brain that grows 300% in a few million years is a biological aberration – and the awful mess we super-humans created. A direct correlation between the human super-brain’s questionable ability to arbitrarily synthesize ideas (ideas which were independent of, and disassociated from the laws of nature) and the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry. The bulk of our social, environmental and geopolitical ills – which include the lethal over-population of humans and their livestock – can be traced directly back to the invention of agriculture.
One and Only One
“The five previous extinction events were caused by either geological cataclysms or extraterrestrial incursions. This is the first time a planet has been brought down by an idea.”
Of the tens of millions of species and subspecies who have inhabited this planet over hundreds and hundreds of millions of years, there is one – and only one – who has attempted to alter, meddle with, manipulate, tamper or interfere with the natural order of biological life on Planet Earth. Only one. There is only one who has attempted to take control of the planet away from nature, to cobble together its own set of self-serving and elitist-driven laws which were estranged and disassociated from the higher and infallible laws of nature. Only one. There is only one who – due to its aberrantly over sized brain – came up with the idea that it could begin capturing other living beings from the wilds (where they belonged and where they should have remained) and then pen them up, tame them, domesticate them, mass-breed and mass-produce them into convenient sources of meat, clothing and cheap labour. Only one. And finally, there is one and only one who gathered grain and plant seeds from the wilds (where they belonged and where they should have remained) and converted them into controlled and mass-produced crops that could be harvested and stored as food stocks. Only one.
If there were tens, perhaps even hundreds of other species or subspecies groups throughout history who also captured, mass-bred and mass-produced other wild animals into ‘livestock’ and subservient beasts of burden then we could rightly assume that this trait was inherent within the genetic makeup of all living organisms. But in three-and-half billion years of biological evolution on Planet Earth it has only happened once. Once. And the fact that it only happened once – that a singular subspecies of advanced primates (great apes) with a super-sized brain tried to take over control of the planet from nature – is proof positive that the super-human phenomenon was – and still is – a biological anomaly, a biological aberration, a veritable ‘freak’ of nature.
They say the proof is in the pudding. The idea which led to the inventions of agriculture and animal husbandry triggered an exponential process whose curve rose ever so slightly at first (as all exponential curves do) and then ‘hockey sticked’ a mere 9-10 thousand years later into a global train-wreck. You want proof…there’s your proof. That in such a tiny infinitesimal speck of time (9-10 thousand years) a single idea transformed a planet (which was in a state of relative balance and harmony with itself) into an apocalyptic night mare. One idea
Conclusion
If one looks at these issues through the filter of genetics, then western civilization’s DNA has been mortally infected by a self-destructive gene which has been incubating, mutating and spreading (exponentially) in all the wrong directions since the invention of agriculture some ten-thousand years ago. Even today we can trace the infection back to a very precise moment in human evolution, to the exact moment when the self-destructive gene first began to infect its unsuspecting host. That precise moment was when early modern humans began interfering with nature and its ancient and time-enduring laws of balance and order. The poisons inherent within the ‘seed’ of human interference were so vile and virulent that they infected every branch, every leaf, every twist and turn, and every future generation of western civilization’s development. The cumulative effect of ten-thousand years of unchecked growth and mutation (of the lethal infection) is the now-imminent collapse of the human system.
Thank You.
Dennis Lakusta
February, 2023