The Neolithic Revolution: Food-Based Government Regime

Throughout human history, food has been a commodity used and traded by many cultures. In the era of the Neolithic Revolution, food also became an investment as many withdrew from their nomadic days of hunting and gathering, in favor of agriculture. As time proceeded, food had found its way for many other uses that would benefit some, but prove detrimental to others. In “An Edible History of Humanity”, the exploitation of food led to new warfare strategies, food-based governmental regimes, and an expansion in scientific research under the Green Revolution. As food was used throughout various military forces throughout the world, many took advantage of this and used food to create new warfare strategies. These proved extremely unfortunate for …show more content…
One example of this is demonstrated during Stalin’s rule in the USSR, where he tried to rapidly industrialize the nation (177). After bringing farming under state control, Stalin introduced a policy of collectivization where the farmer’s produce belonged to the state thereby making it readily available for export (178). Unfortunately, this lead to a widespread famine as most of the peasants were left with little to eat when harvests were not up to scratch (179). Another regime similar to this developed in China under Mao Zedong. In 1949, Mao started his strive toward industrialization by putting a state monopoly on grain (182). To further activate his Great Leap Forward, Mao increased the planting of seeds on smaller areas of land and increased irrigation (184). After Mao died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping made reforms by introducing a two-tier system in which households were given their own land in which they decided what was to be cultivated on it …show more content…
During the time period of the Green Revolution, competitions and rivalries between scientists increased. This all started when two German scientists named Hermann Henriegal and Hermann Willfarth experimented with nitrogen as a plant nutrient (202). As a result, many scientists grew interest in developing nitrogen-based fertilizers for plants (204). However, a problem remained on how to extract nitrogen for plant use. Eventually, Fritz Haber and his partner Robert Le managed to extract nitrogen from ammonia. (208). Subsequently, the BASF gave the task of producing large amounts of ammonia to Carl Bosch. By combining Haber’s methods with his own, Bosch managed to develop the Haber-Bosch process in which nitrogen was extracted from the air and hydrogen from coal (210). Although many saw the need for increasing agricultural production in the past, more current methods are working to facilitate agriculture for the future. A prime example of such a method is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the island of Spitsbergen. Scientific research was a key factor in the construction and preservation for this project. One of these includes finding the best temperature for the seeds at which they can be stored for the longest time possible