ABSTRACT

The history of agriculture forms the backbone of the origin story that our culture has been telling itself for ages. Agriculture was founded in Mesopotamia, along the fertile Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, both of which originate in modern-day Turkey and meander through the Middle East, before spilling into the Persian Gulf. Indeed, as historians have begun to rethink the narrow focus on Mesopotamia and Europe, the diverse global traditions of food cultivation have forced a wholesale reappraisal of the history and meaning of agriculture. Europeans eventually adopted Mesopotamian-style agriculture, affecting not only very impactful events in world history, but also the way in which agriculture is conceived. The problem is that agriculture can exist in countless forms, many of which would look quite foreign to eyes accustomed to seeing vast monocultures of soil-depleting annuals. There are many ways to farm; many ways to be a farmer.