Agricultural Revolution

Agricultural Revolution

Back in the early years, people have their very own way to survive in this world. They went for hunting edible animals in the juggle or gather in a village or place so that they could obtain food supplies. Could we imagine how tough it was for these people merely to get food for living, so that they could continue their life and preserve the continuation of human being? But thankfully it changed in 1700s when people started to make agricultural revolution, by that means people domesticated plants and animals so that they could sustain their life by having food stocks that they preserved. Although there were group of hunters that still hunting during that time, the agricultural revolution has impacted many or should I say most of the people in this world. They started to make their own land into agriculture field where they could use it for farming and animal’s production. During this stage, usually the production of food supply and the crops yield just adequate for their own family supplies and it was not for commercial purpose. When it came to another stage of Agricultural revolution, where this revolution brought a very significant impact in civilization and economic development; in which the era was called by the dawn of civilization. The Agricultural Revolution resulted in a food surplus, not unlike the original agricultural revolution which allowed civilization to develop. The agricultural revolution was a period of agricultural development between the 18th century and the end of the 19th century, which we could describe as one of vast and rapid increase in agricultural productivity and drastic improvements in farm technology. This idea of Agricultural revolution can be proved, as more experimental farmers has developed good and healthy seeds, cross breeding animals that potentially increase their life and prevent any diseases, nutritious soil or dirt, effective fertilizers, a good and efficient system of drainage and fencing. In addition, these enhancements of science have reasonably produced an efficient fertilizer thus it was one of major factors that increased the productivity of soil. Lastly, there were also multitude of great inventions such as seed drills, plow, moldboard and many more. These machines or inventions have made the farmer’s work became easier than it ever was and it also increased the productivity of crops and animals. I found a quote from one of my readings and it effectively related to agricultural revolution, "Thus not only will the same amount of land be able to feed more people; but each of them, with less labor, will be employed more productively and will be able to satisfy his needs better." (Condorcet, 1793) There were a number of the factors that triggered the idea of agricultural revolution and new farming method in that particular of time, in which obviously because the lack of food supplies while at the same time they also were facing overpopulation. Furthermore, people were desperately trying to overcome this deficient issue and came up with the ideas to increase the production of food by planting on their own. Apart from that, the industrial revolution also played a crucial role for agricultural revolution to rise. Both of these revolutions were closely related because of the idea of having better living and civilization. In fact, it is impossible for industrial revolution to take place without agricultural revolution. Besides, agricultural revolution also was triggered by the improvement of transportation method such as roads, railroads, refrigerated railroad, cars and trucks. By using this improvement of transportation technology, the farmer could increase the quantity of crops yield being brought to the market hence maximize their profit. According to my professor, Deborah Symonds has stated “the changes in farming that made fortunes for some, and left others anxious and evicted from their farms.” Based on that statement, we can tell that there were possibility of pros and cons from the agricultural revolution phenomenon. However, I strongly believe that the pros outweigh the cons as the impact of agricultural revolution towards the society highly important. As we know, the development of science has created an improved quality of fertilizer that eventually impacted more productive land. As we know, productive land would produce vast productions of crops and animals. This would lead to an even and stable population growth and contribution of food supplies, in which it became a key factor to the overcoming of famine problem. Apart from that, the increased of the population had produced a greater demand from the people for goods such as clothing. It is said that agricultural revolution had been the stepping stone to the Industrial Revolution. This has resulted in more construction of industrial factories hence increased the work opportunity for the people. On the other hand, the cons of agricultural revolution was that it included the reallocation of land ownership. When the land happened to be more productive, it increased in value. It attracted these capitalists to be investors for food plantation and domestic farmers to buy the land in a large scale so that they could utilize it to produce large crops and vast production of animals. The consequence affected those small farm owners, or people who started with small area of land found themselves left out. It led to the eviction of small farming family from their own land for example the Highland Clearance in Scotland. In conclusion, Agricultural revolution had played a very significant role in shaping our modern day. I personally believe that we could not live as modern as it should be without agricultural revolution in fact I imagine that we could still go for hunting for food supplies just for the matter of survival. It made me think that this revolution has overcome world’s greatest problem, the deficient food and kept us away from famine. The Agricultural revolution was indeed a crucial phenomenon that ever happened in development of civilization.