The Worst Mistake In Human History Analysis

The Worst Mistake in Human History Jared Diamond says that agriculture was the worst mistake in human history. According to Diamond, “in many ways, adoption of agriculture was not progress but a catastrophe from which humans have never recovered.” Diamond suggests that agriculture may have led to a decrease in health, starvation, and the spread of disease. Diamond did also mention a few positive things about agriculture as well, such as more leisure time and more crops per acre. However, do these positive effects make up for the negatives? That’s the million dollar question. There is no doubt that agriculture has made life easier. In fact, there is a great deal of evidence that suggests agriculture has greatly changed people’s lives for the better. Jared Diamond, however, does not agree with this. He says that agriculture has the blame for a large decrease in people’s health. “In one study, the Bushmen’s average daily food intake (during a month when food was plentiful) was 2.140 calories and 93 grams of protein, …show more content…
This cluster of people led to the spread of many diseases. “Finally, the mere fact that agriculture encouraged people to clump together in crowded societies, many of which then carried on trade with other crowded societies, led to the spread of parasites and infectious disease,” (15). These diseases could include, “anemia, tuberculosis, leprosy, and other diseases,” (11). This could ultimately lead to issues where people are so sick and ill that they can’t till the fields and might die from starvation and/or their disease. And, of course, once one person is ill, everyone in the family eventually becomes ill. Not only could this affect their health, but the pure lack of food that they are eating because of being ill could result in starvation. All of this because of how agriculture clumped people together in large