The Pros And Cons Of The Potato Famine

Crops can kill thousands and build millions. During the Potato Famine, an infamous crop failure, “1845 to 1947, more than one million people died of starvation or emigrated. Additionally, over 50,000 people died of diseases: typhus, scurvy, dysentery” (American University). For thousands of years crops have fueled large societies allowing for mass population growth and human expansion. But the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural reliance bered many consequences along with its pros. Switching to an agricultural way of life provided health issues among humans, drastic changes socially and culturally, as well as ecological implications. This paper examines the changes accumulated by this transition including its enduring

Contrastingly, the agricultural transition promoted crops as well as self promotion which causes greed and decreases community closeness. Due to the abundance which farming life provides agriculture allowed for huma to stay in one place rather than travel. In this manner farming life created an array of jobs not seen before. Some jobs were better and highly praised like royalties or religious leaders. Otherwise humans were given jobs which induced hard labor. These contrasts in work and money indicate hierarchies and classes (higher, middle, and lower). Rather than working together to get by humans were now competitors with one another trying to gain success and power. Culturally the expansion of occupation variety allowed for aesthetics to take a rise, where earlier humans were preoccupied mainly on survival rather than art and beauty. There was the ability to create pots, clothing, and jewelry. Even now, humans are known culturally for relying on beautiful things which reflect who we are as well as status. Although, aesthetics could be a benefit of this transition, it allowed for the separation of people through status by the beauty and worth of their belongings. These social and cultural changes while allowing the growth in population, decreased the value in human relationships. Not only has population increase negatively affected the relationship among

Due to the populations’ spartic increase population expansion became an issue. Humans were forced to take land from surrounding habitats in order to create their own. The destruction of forests and greenlands caused deforestation, animal endangerment, and extinction, “Agriculture is estimated to be the direct driver for around 80% of deforestation worldwide” (Wageningen University). While this occurred crops gradually depleted almost all the nutrients from the soil leaving areas bare and unable to unable to sustain plant life. Making acres useless to humans or animals and in return humans had to reach farther into inhabited areas in order to find fertile land. The sudden environmental burden in carbon dioxide from increased population and decrease in forest a plants to convert the high carbon dioxide levels produced an environmental issue which affects climate and the seasonal cycles. Recent research shows that “In Latin America, commercial agriculture is the main direct driver, responsible for 2/3 of all cut forests, while in Africa and tropical Asia commercial agriculture and subsistence agriculture both account for one third of deforestation”(Wageningen University).When viewing the change from hunter-gathering to farming from a global perspective the transition was very selfish of