ABSTRACT
As agriculture progressed, surpluses became large enough to feed people who did not need to work the fields, freeing human energy, attention, and creativity for art and industry. The evolution of agricultural practices, particularly in industrialized economies, is highly susceptible to distortion by commoditization. Agriculture most likely became necessary for survival once early humans had gotten so good at hunting and gathering that they began to deplete their immediate surroundings of readily available food. Investment in research and development probably plays the greatest role in agricultural commoditization, indeed all commoditization, by disproportionately investing in research and development that yields new and better commodities, not necessarily new and better agriculture. The most commoditizable items in the health sector are pharmaceutical drugs. Like the health care industry, pollution control and environmental protection resist complete privatization because of their role as public goods, but they are subject to the pressures of commoditization.
