Early Food Systems Flashcards

Early Food Systems

Key Knowledge & Skills

• Factors facilitating early agricultural food systems:

  • Cultivation of wild plants

  • Domestication of animals for farming

• Research and explain key historical factors and developments in global food production systems

• Hunter-gatherer food systems vs. early agricultural food systems:

  • Types of foods available

  • Potential advantages for communities

  • Challenges in feeding human populations

• Examine attributes and challenges of hunter-gatherer and agricultural food systems

Key Terms

• Cultivation: Improving soil to grow healthy plants and crops.

  • Involves loosening and breaking up (tilling) soil.

  • Removing and adding water and air to the soil to prepare it for planning seeds.

• Domestication: Adapting wild plants or animals for human use.

• Crop: Harvested plant used for:

  • Food

  • Textiles and paper

  • Decoration and fuel

  • Livestock feed

• Agriculture: Farming practice involving:

  • Cultivation of land for growing crops

  • Feeding, breeding, and raising livestock

• Egalitarian: Belief in equality of people and resources, everyone entitled to the same rights and opportunities.

• Fallow: Farming land ploughed and harrowed but left for a period to restore fertility.

• Fertile: Soil or land containing enough nutrients for plant and crop growth.

• Harvesting: Gathering of crops.

• Irrigation: Supplying soil and plants with a consistent water source.

• Hunter-gatherer: Nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering wild food.

• Foraging: Gathering of wild food to eat.

• Terrain: An area of land and its natural features (e.g., mountainous, flat, arid).

• The Fertile Crescent: Area in the Middle East where agriculture is believed to have started (parts of modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan).

• Livestock: Animals raised for human use.

• Neolithic Revolution: Transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to farming and settled villages; beginning of agriculture.

• Nomadic: Way of life lacking permanent settlement.

• Sustainable: Able to be continually used without depletion, assured for current and future generations.

Early Food-Producing Regions

• Approximately 10,000 years ago, early food-producing regions led to gradual changes in civilisation, known as the Neolithic Revolution or Agricultural Revolution.

• Humans transitioned from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to settling permanently in areas with reliable food supplies.

• Agriculture emerged, with farming methods like irrigation being discovered, leading to the development of intricate food systems.

Hunter-Gatherer Food Systems

• For nearly 200,000 years, humans gathered, hunted, and foraged in the wild.

• Food was a basic need, and humans spent their days searching for their next meal.

Hunter-Gatherer Lifestyle: Advantages and Challenges

• Advantages:

  • Worked together as a group, with everyone having a role.

  • Often equal rights within the group.

  • Lived off what the land could provide.

  • Supportive society with equal sharing.

  • Egalitarian structure.

• Challenges:

  • Solely dependent on food supply.

  • Could not carry large amounts of food or resources.

  • Climate change affected available resources.

  • Faced starvation if food was not found.

  • Dangers of hunting.

  • Potential for encountering unknown poisonous foods when moving to new areas.

  • Large amount of energy required to find food, with no guarantee of success.

Early Agricultural Food Systems

• Development of early agriculture marked one of the most important transitions in human history.

• Hunter-gatherers transitioned from a nomadic lifestyle to settling in villages and towns, where they began domesticating plants and animals.

• This transition happened over thousands of years:

  • Hunter-gatherers existed for 200,000+ years.

  • Agriculture developed approximately 13,000 years ago.

  • Agriculture was widely established around 7,000 years ago.

• Hunter-gatherer and agrarian cultures co-existed for thousands of years.

• The transition to agriculture, a form of animal and plant production, changed food systems forever.

Agrarian Societies: Characteristics

• Permanent settlements in areas with rich food sources, fertile soil, and reliable water supplies.

• Cultivation of wild plants and selective breeding.

• Domestication of animals.

• Larger populations.

• Storing food, particularly grains (non-perishable).

• Advancements in farming practices: tools, equipment, irrigation systems, changes to the land.

• Livelihood and economy based on producing and maintaining crops and farmland.

• People took on specialised roles in the community outside food production, including scholars, artists, soldiers, and priests.

Agrarian Lifestyle: Advantages and Challenges

• Advantages:

  • Developed agriculture and a stable food supply.

  • Settled in homes that offered space for storage.

  • Greater amount of food available - food surplus.

  • Not all people had to spend their day foraging for food - tradespeople developed their skills, and art and creative pursuits increased.

  • Controllable food supply.

  • Manipulation of the environment to meet needs.

  • Trade opportunities created for the community and developed wealth.

  • Population growth.

• Challenges:

  • Caused change to the environment and its natural resources.

  • Often developed negative social structures and hierarchies.

  • Developed inequality within the society.

  • Excessive consumption of food.

  • Conflict and war.

  • Severe weather, catastrophe, or war could severely impact food supply.

  • Food supply was not evenly distributed.

  • Population growth.

Cultivation of Wild Plants

• Wild plants grow spontaneously without human interaction.

• Cultivated plants depend on humans for their survival.

• Hunter-gatherers would gather what they could find in the wild and leave enough for it to grow again each season.

• Early agricultural practices meant that plants could be cared for and grown in optimum conditions, ensuring a stable food supply.

• Domestication of plants led to a surplus, requiring vessels for storing foods (stone, wood, and clay).

• This led to new trades and jobs in the production of these items.

• Consumption of food changed: people created dishes with a variety of foods, instead of just eating individual ingredients, requiring serving dishes and utensils.

• Diet patterns changed: food storage allowed food to be eaten year-round, not just when in season.

Domestication of Animals

• Desired features for successful domestication included a calm temperament.

• Animals were initially farmed for meat, but also for milk and fur (for textiles).

• Domesticated animals were also used for farm work and transport.

• Domesticated animals were cared for and relied on by humans, who supplied food, water, and protection from predators, unlike wild animals.

Comparing Different Food Systems: Key Terms

• Food Security

• Food Sovereignty

• Food Citizenship

Food Security

• Food Security exists when all people at all times have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle.

Five Dimensions of Food Security

• Availability: a sufficient supply of food

• Accessibility: physical and economic access to food

• Acceptability: culturally acceptable food produced in a manner that respects human rights

• Adequacy: safe and nutritious foods produced in environmentally sustainable ways

• Stability: reliability of the food supply

Food Sovereignty

• Food Sovereignty is the right of people to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agricultural systems.

Six Pillars of Food Sovereignty

• Focuses on food for people

• Values food providers

• Localises the food systems

• Puts control locally

• Builds knowledge and skills

• Works with nature

Food Citizenship

• Food Citizenship is the practice of encouraging food-related behaviours that support the development of democratic, socially and economically just, and environmentally sustainable food systems.

Examples of Food Citizenship

• Supports environmental sustainability

• Supports the local economy

• Builds awareness of food issues

• Promotes accountability

• Recognises and challenges social injustice