A small compilation citing Agroecological practices in the ancient world, and how they helped build the first great civilizations.
Hello ecotrain friends, I hope you are very well. Humanity has come a long way since the first homo sapiens stood up and we started building civilizations, and to go a long way you need a lot of food, and to get food you have to cultivate the land and raise animals, but how do we do this without destroying the land, ecosystems, water sources and the planet in general?
That question is increasingly in the air today as we face climate change, an existential threat to humanity. The IPCC [international panel for climate change] recently proposed to accelerate the transition from traditional agriculture to Agroecology, and they may be right, for while we still can't solve the issue of sustainable agriculture, perhaps thousands of years ago we already had the answer, we just forgot [on purpose perhaps?] the old ways.
Anyone who knows a little ancient history will know that life in ancient times was not easy, people died of diseases that today are mere nuisances to us, were eaten by wolves or leopards, and a drought, or flood could destroy large tracts of crops, and thus starve whole cities to death. For people in ancient times, having productive crops that were resistant to unexpected weather changes and that could be sustained over time was a NECESSITY, not a luxury. Life depended on it. So today I bring you 5 examples of agroecological practices in the ancient world.
1. Egypt.
One of the oldest civilizations, perhaps much older than we thought until recently, the Egyptians built their empire in the Nile Valley, and better said, they built the Nile Valley for their empire, because for the valley to be a valley required the work of millions of people for thousands of years.
Egyptian civilization engaged in agro-ecological practices out of necessity, and although in the later ages of the empire these were gradually replaced by more aggressive methods of cultivation, there remains evidence of the enormous reverence with which the Egyptians treated the land and the animals that lived on it.
The Egyptians not only understood the importance of the water of the Nile River and how it nourished the land, and how the period of flooding and then receding tides of the Nile were essential to the life of the crops. They also understood the value of many of the animal species that inhabited the crops, for example, the dung beetle which has been immortalized in numerous images, making it a sacred animal, the dung beetle was vital to agriculture because it helped distribute, decompose and inject into the soil the solid waste of farm animals, a very effective fertilization system, plus their burrows and nests helped oxygenate the soil. It should be noted that the oxen, the plow animal par excellence, is also represented as a sacred animal.
The Ibis, another sacred animal, helped to control pests such as snails in crops, and the crocodile was a scavenger that prevented the accumulation of corpses.
Even the very profession of farmer was considered of great nobility, plowing the land was to do the work of the gods, this was immortalized in the tombs of numerous great kings of ancient Egypt through hieroglyphics.
[note also the use of mixed cultivation by planting different species of plants together].
Religion permeated every aspect of life in ancient Egypt, and through it has been transmitted to us the great importance that the Egyptians gave to the cultivation of the land always with respect and reverence for all living things, after all, it is the creation and gift of the gods.
2. Ancient Rome.
[watch the birds].
Food was not a problem in the valleys of today's Italy back then, but if you want to build an empire you need food, lots of food for those long marches, to resist sieges, to exchange for weapons and raw materials, many Romans understood this, and that is why famous Roman generals like Cincinnatus, who besides being a brilliant strategist and according to popular myth an avid farmer who loved the quiet life of the countryside, based their strategy on the efficient use of logistics.
Due to the relatively closer proximity to us in terms of time, some Roman copies of cultivation manuals have survived, scholars such as Virgil, Cato, Varro, Columella and Pliny all wrote about it, leaving a record for history of the best agricultural practices of the time, contour plowing, cover crops, crop rotation, leguminous crops to oxygenate soils, integration of crops with local fauna to control pests, the use of secondary crops to feed livestock and then use the waste from this as fertilizer, it is almost like being in front of a modern agroecology manual.
And not only that, the Romans also left a lot of advice, on how to handle corruption, finances, and work ethic, encouraging humility of the landowner and responsibility to the environment, the farming profession was at one point highly respected in ancient Rome, and in fact, the myth of the founding of Rome cites farm work as what formed the body and character of Romulus, founder of Rome, for warfare.
3. The Maya.
At some point in recent history, the academic version of Maya history is that the Maya owed their disappearance to the destruction of soils due to the intensive agriculture needed to create the empire [in part a cautionary tale warning us against intensive agriculture]. However, recent studies show not only that this is an erroneous version of the facts, [and perhaps a bit racist] but that contrary to popular belief, the Maya were very advanced in terms of sustainable agriculture.
Not only are they the inventors of the Milpa agroecological farming system, but they also connected this practice with a cycle of agroforestry, in which utility trees were allowed to grow between the Milpas, and this cycle then led to a system of Bosques Jardin, basically portions of forest with hundreds of plant and animal species, where the vast majority of the plant species had a use for the Maya, be it food, medicine, raw materials, or recreation [yes, those herbs and mushrooms] an excellent video about it here
The Aztecs, who built much of the Maya culture, also engaged in sustainable agricultural practices, such as the Chinampas, a floating crop system that gives excellent yields and is integrated with aquatic animal species.
Recent studies show that the Maya were a much larger civilization than we think, the use of laser radar systems that can penetrate the dense jungle and soil layers have discovered tens of thousands of new Maya structures in Central America, and it is estimated that at its peak, the Maya civilization reached 11 million inhabitants, that's a lot of mouths to feed, so food was an important point.
4. The Incas.
Another lost culture of the Americas, but one that lives in the blood of our people. The simple fact of building their cities where they did, and next to them, the farms necessary to feed their great civilization, is already in itself one of the greatest agricultural promises of humanity, and experts believe that the system of cultivation in terraces of the hincas is the most elaborate and efficient in the world.
The Andean mountains are a difficult territory, the altitude that makes the air much less dense makes intense physical activity difficult, periods of very cold and little rain, followed by periods of flooding and landslides, make cultivating the mountains a difficult task, however the Incas succeeded, They not only had an irrigation system that made extremely efficient use of water, but also the same way of working the land in a system of steps and terraces that helped to give greater production in items such as potatoes than modern systems.
The Incas also used mixed crops to ensure soil fertility and even perfected the way they used crops and the construction of their terraces to store heat in the daytime, and keep the temperature stable in the freezing Andean nights.
The Incas also selectively bred different species of potatoes and grains that better resist sudden temperature fluctuations. Something very useful in these times of climate change.
5. China [and much of Asia].
Vessels from more than 2000 years ago, found in China, already show the tradition of cultivating rice and in the same waters, fish farming and poultry farming [ducks]. This ancestral technique was distributed throughout Asia, adapting to different climates and water levels, with different species of fish and rice for each region.
In modern times, thanks to industrialization this practice was left behind, but with the new challenges of climate change and the dangers of pollution, it is coming back into practice and has been found to be actually more profitable than the modern monoculture system, because in addition to using less fertilizer and almost no pesticides, the fish and poultry that help raise these farms is more valuable.
A system with an elegant simplicity, but with wonderful results that promise to help solve the problem of hunger in Southeast Asia.
I love how beautiful those rice fields are, I would like to visit one someday.
Conclusion.
These are just a few examples related to the great civilizations of the ancient world, I chose these on purpose to prove the point that agroecology is not only viable, but profitable in the long term and can sustain the growth of humanity, however many cultures and civilizations had similar practices, the American Indians, the inhabitants of the Pacific islands etc.... Today the population of the planet is much larger than in ancient times, this certainly makes it more difficult to feed everyone, but that does not mean that it is not possible, because today we have the benefit of a greater understanding of nature, advanced technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology ... only the will is missing, something that in the ancient world was never lacking.
Recommended Bibliographic Reference
[1] OVER THERE THOUSAND YEARS OF ENVIRON MENTAL SUSTAINABILITY WITHIN ANCIENT EGYPT"
[2] SENIOR CAPSTO"
This was well researched and you made me know more about other countries who really took agroecological farming system to be so important and how they handled it. Thank you for the time sharing this.
SO ACCURATE!!! I absolutely agree! Now, we are all just engrossed with our own lives and want to live a luxurious life. We are no anymore looking toward others nor are we trying to make the lives of others advanced. We all are severely distracted. It is like we HAVE everything, yet we have NOTHING.
On top of that, we all are killing what made us survive from the very start. We are killing nature, intentionally and unintentionally.
Educational, and your argument that agroecology is, indeed, viable is excellent as usual. The Chinese system of rice production with fish and ducks is particularly enlightening. I also loved your description of the Incas’ terrace system, ingenious. Thank you for posting your well researched, interesting article in the EcoTrain community ❤️😊🤔😊😊❤️
This is an entertaining and educational article. As population grows we'll certainly need more food and have to expand our capacity to produce. The planet just can't handle it. I'm a science fiction writer and like to think of radical ways to solve (and create) problems many years in the future. As far as agriculture is concerned, I think we'll need to take our farms to outer space. This will ease agricultural pressures on the planet. We can place an endless number of farms around earth's orbit and grow all of our produce in space. Those ancient techniques that you mentioned could come in handy in this process. Imagine that! We save the planet by growing our potatoes in outer space. Think local; buy orbital.
Hi @anyelina93, your post has been upvoted by @bdcommunity courtesy of @rem-steem!
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