Analysis Of The Worst Mistake In The Human Race By Jared Diamond

Agriculture is the practice of farming and it has widely affected the world today. There are some believers that it has ruined human race because of how it revolutionized the hunter- gatherer’s society. Jared Diamond, an author, wrote “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” which he explains how he believes that agriculture has ruined us today. He states many facts about the conversion of being a hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural society ruined the world. The transition had a negative effect on the human race, but the positivity that came out of it outweighed the bad and it has allowed the world to progress and advance every day.

Before farmers, there were hunter- gatherers. Hunter-gatherers hunted for their food and

were always on the move. In Jared Diamond’s article, he argues that adopting agriculture was the worst move a human could ever make. According to his article, the “[human race’s] escape from this misery was facilitated only 10,000 years ago, when in different parts of the world people began to domesticate plants and animals” (Diamond 1). Ten thousand years ago was when people turned to farming because of how easy it became for them to have an abundance of food and it allowed them to stay in one place. But even though it became an easy job for them, it took a toll on their health. In the article, it states that:
Compared to the hunter- gatherers who preceded them, the farmers had a nearly 50 percent increase in enamel defects indicative of malnutrition, a fourfold increase in iron- deficiency anemia…a threefold rise in bone lesions reflecting infectious disease in general, and an increase in degenerative conditions of the spine, probably reflecting a lot of hard physical labor. (Diamond 3)
These are the impacts that came with agriculture, it took a toll on people’s bodies and the article also states that it declined their survival rate because many of them contracted infectious diseases from each other. Throughout the article, Jared Diamond continues to state his strong belief of humans making the “worst mistake in human history,” by converting to an agricultural society. Even though the beginning of the agricultural society had a lot of negative affects to the human race, a lot of positivity came out of it.
The world today widely revolves around agriculture.

If it were not for agriculture, people would still have to hunt and gather for their own food. In Jared Diamond’s article, he states that “while farmers concentrate on high-carbohydrate crops like rice and potatoes, the mix of wild plants and animals in the diets of surviving hunter-gatherers provides more protein and a better balance of other nutrients” (Diamond 2). Although the beginning stages of agriculture were mostly rice and potatoes, it has now transformed over time and farmers are able to grow any type of fruits and vegetables they want. Not having the right proportion of food or the right nutrients for the body is not a problem anymore because of how agriculture has advanced today. Agriculture today is able to give people a copious amount of food that is able to be stored for a long period of time and is available anywhere around the world. Shortage of nutrients was not the only problem people had during the transition; they also had a problem of catching infectious diseases. During the transition of being hunter-gatherers to farmers, “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” (Diamond 4). This problem resulted in finding out the cure or different medications for diseases such as tuberculosis. If it were not for the many diseases that existed throughout the years,

people would not have been able to discover vaccines and medications to help fight and cure diseases. Agriculture might have only been about farming, but if it were not for it, humans would not have the right resources today. It gave off a domino effect to humanity because it not only affected the way people got their food but, it also affected their health and finding new ways of healing. It may have taken time for agriculture to progress, but it was worth sticking to because it has helped the world today, from having an infinite amount of resources to having vaccinations to fight diseases.
Jared Diamond argues that agriculture was a mistake, but from the looks of the world today, he was wrong.

The agricultural revolution made what humans are today, humans have found new resources, made new inventions, and it has made the world more successful. During the revolution of agriculture, “since crops can be stored, and since it takes less time to pick food from a garden than to find it in the wild, agriculture gave [people] free time that hunter-gatherers never had” (Diamond 2). Having more free time allowed them to be creative, new tools and new inventions were being made as days passed. Since they stayed in one place where most of them clumped together, people were more susceptible to diseases. Even though many people contracted diseases, humans were able to find ways to treat them. The diseases that existed back then are mostly gone today because of vaccines and new medical technology. Humans have learned how to improve their lives today because of what they have learned from the

past.
The past has a lot to do with how the world we live in today became advanced. The beginning of agriculture might have had a negative effect on people back then but, it has gotten us to who we are now today. James Diamond believed that agriculture was “the worst mistake in human history” but he does not see how far it has become. Humans now have new opportunities that they did not have in the past. Agriculture was not a mistake, it was a step in a new direction that had consequences in the beginning, but those consequences allowed humans to adapt to their new environment.