the.com/farming
turning sunlight into food by arguing with weather, soil, and debt for millennia.
means the deliberate cultivation of plants and animals for food, fiber, and fuel, instead of just taking what nature happens to leave lying around.
from from old english feorm, meaning provisions or a fixed rent paid in produce — farmers originally weren't owners, they were tenants handing over crops to landlords, and the word kept the debt baked in.
neolithic switchhumans domesticated wheat before they domesticated writing
soil mathone inch of topsoil takes 500 years to form
labor shareunder 2 percent of americans farm, feeding the other 98
water costone almond needs about a gallon of water to grow
for instance
fertile crescent wheat — 10000 bce, mesopotamia, where farming itself was invented
dust bowl — 1930s great plains, bad farming plus drought erased topsoil
green revolution — 1960s, norman borlaug's wheat strains saved a billion from famine
iowa corn belt — produces more corn than most entire countries