In this episode, I interview Richard Manning, essayist and author of a number of books about agriculture and civilization. In this interview, we talk with Richard about the beginning of agriculture, the role annual grasses have played in shaping agriculture and civilization, the importance of grasslands, and the key to finding individual food niches within our local food sheds. This one is not to be missed.
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5 responses to “Episode #35: Agriculture and Civilization”
Great interview. I’ve linked to it fomr here: http://agro.biodiver.se/2008/08/nibbles-ag-origins/
This was a very interesting podcast. Manning is so very right on so many topics that aren’t even addressed in today’s universities.
I might comment that no-till (or “conservation tillage”) is being increasingly accepted by producers, at least here in the SE USA. This, in contrast to the statements made around minute 17.5, where he states that agriculture necessitates tillage. If ag was invented before animal domestication (and i am not sure that it was), that would mean that most of human history’s agriculture involved reduced tillage, and therefore would not have the net carbon emission that it does today. That is not to say that ag was ever C positive, but then again, we never had to feed 7 billion people before, either.
Another interesting topic was N neutrality. Although not explicitly stated during the podcast, N-containing greenhouse gases are far less abundant than C greenhouse gases in the atm, and therefore the C gases receive more attention. But the discussion of N neutrality in this podcast was highly interesting, and i shall have to think about that one some more!
Great podcast, i shall recommend it to my agronomy and soils dept here in Auburn! Keep up the great work.
an awesome podcast. I don’t have anything to add other than I would love to have the chance to interview Manning for my podcast show to expose the paleo/evolutionary diet subculture to Manning’s very succinct ideas/presentation.
I will say that I intend to spread your work on my site, I’m not trolling here, I mean it! Awesome site, and I’m glad I came across it. I intend to come back here most frequently.
Although Manning’s book preceded Pollan by a few years it’s odd his “Against the Grain” didn’t initiate the sea change in public awareness of the same issues as “Dilemma.” I’m sure there’s already a link to Manning’s synopsis article somewhere on this website, but just in case:
http://www.wesjones.com/oilweeat.htm
As a side note in his “Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers” Stephen Buhner offers the not terribly frivolous notion that agriculture started/spread because people wanted to make alcoholic beverages, a theory also acknowledged by historian Peter Stearns.
Your guest Richard Manning in the episode #35 “Agriculture and Civilization” makes the patently absurd statement that annual plants deplete the soil. They take up nutrients from the soil, like any plant, and use gasses from the air to grow. They die/are eaten and the nutrients are metabolized by others and/or returned to the soil/air. You could say that plants “deplete the air” of carbon dioxide or “legumes deplete the air of nitrogen” but that’s nonsense, it all cycles around. Some of our farming systems deplete the soil, but you can’t blame the plants. Any farming system where you eat one place and poop another and never return the nutrients to the soil is soil depleting, whether the plants are annual, biennial, or perennial.