In my previous blog post, I spoke about the industrialization of food production in Western societies from the period following the Industrial Revolution (IR) up until technological advancements such as electricity and automobiles. Well, this YouTube video is an example of how "agriculture" (if you can still call it that) exists in the 21st century. The concept of efficient industrialized production of cheap, low-quality food that developed during the IR has become even more streamlined and systematic with the incorporation of modern technology. Almost all food Americans eat is produced in an industrial fashion and is processed (according the American Heart Foundation), further widening the gap between the quantity of our food being produced and the quality, or how healthy it is.
Like every college student, I go through phases where I try to lose weight. Other than working out, the main hurdle to lowering my BMI is eating healthy. When I really am dedicated, I can usually last 2-3 weeks eating a healthy(ish) diet. Then, just as I'm starting to feel good about myself, my dietary Kryptonite starts to appear everywhere I go. Giant signs reading "Pizza Hut!," "In-N-Out," "McDonalds," "Taco Bell," and my biggest weakness "Subway." Usually at that point I give up and indulge my urges, however, I am slightly comforted (and worried) that ~50 million Americans eat fast food a day, and almost half the nation grabs a quick bite at least once a week (Statisticbrain.com). It is well known that these types of food are bad for your health, but our evolutionary cravings for high energy, high fat, and sodium rich foods can push logic out of the way.
What does all this mean? It's simple, modern technology has not helped improve our quality of food; rather, it has done the complete opposite and altered the integrity of what we consume, pushing it further away from what our bodies actually need. In addition, the fast pace of modern societies drive us (pun intended) to often times choose convenience over healthiness.
On the other end of the spectrum is energy expenditure, and advancements in technology have not improved this situation, instead modern innovations have only made the problem worse. The following list is the top 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century according to the National Academy of Engineering.
Like every college student, I go through phases where I try to lose weight. Other than working out, the main hurdle to lowering my BMI is eating healthy. When I really am dedicated, I can usually last 2-3 weeks eating a healthy(ish) diet. Then, just as I'm starting to feel good about myself, my dietary Kryptonite starts to appear everywhere I go. Giant signs reading "Pizza Hut!," "In-N-Out," "McDonalds," "Taco Bell," and my biggest weakness "Subway." Usually at that point I give up and indulge my urges, however, I am slightly comforted (and worried) that ~50 million Americans eat fast food a day, and almost half the nation grabs a quick bite at least once a week (Statisticbrain.com). It is well known that these types of food are bad for your health, but our evolutionary cravings for high energy, high fat, and sodium rich foods can push logic out of the way.
What does all this mean? It's simple, modern technology has not helped improve our quality of food; rather, it has done the complete opposite and altered the integrity of what we consume, pushing it further away from what our bodies actually need. In addition, the fast pace of modern societies drive us (pun intended) to often times choose convenience over healthiness.
On the other end of the spectrum is energy expenditure, and advancements in technology have not improved this situation, instead modern innovations have only made the problem worse. The following list is the top 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century according to the National Academy of Engineering.
| 11. Highways 12. Spacecraft 13. Internet 14. Imaging 15. Household Appliances 16. Health Technologies 17. Petroleum 18. Laser and Fiber Optics 19. Nuclear Technologies 20. High-performance Materials |
What I found most interesting about this list is that the top 10 all provide ways for people to exert less energy or to be comfortable. However, I should not have found this surprising since it is human nature to want to conserve as much energy as possible.
In addition, I have noticed from my own life experiences and observations that most occupations do not involve any intense manual labor and are focused around providing some sort of service or information. A trend that is just a continuation of what began during the IR.
Agriculture today has many similarities and differences with early agrarian societies.
Similarities
- Both focus on producing higher quantities of food instead of quality
- Both depend on only a few staple crops
- Both artificially select traits that are beneficial to their needs
- Both promote population growth
Differences
- Pre-IR cultural centers were based in farming sites, while cultural centers are based in cities today
- Pre-IR only used manual labor and domesticated animals while agriculture today almost completely depends on technology and artificial machines
- Pre-IR societies involved large amounts physical activity while modern occupations require extremely little
- There is a major difference between the quality of foods produced
- Pre-IR farming was usually small scale, while modern farming is usually on a massive industrial scale.
You guessed it! Here comes another SUMMARY!
Even though the technological innovations and scientific advancements that have occurred in this final phase of agricultural-dependent society are so massive and revolutionary, the trend of producing low-quality food on an industrial scale and living physically inactive lifestyles has become more dangerously more prevalent.
Time to bring it all together!
My second blog post I examined the H&G society and came up with my own complex definition:
Hunting and gathering can be defined as small band societies (10-100 members) impacted by high infant mortality rates and continuously migrate around a specific region in order to efficiently hunt and forage for most or all food from a wide range of nutrient rich, unmodified, and sometimes scarce wild plants and animals. This lifestyle requires more physical activity, but demands fewer hours and results in large amounts of leisure time.
Now, in order to have a fair comparison to between how life is today compared to what it was like Pre-Agricultural, I think I should define what it means to be living in a Western agricultural-dependent society:
Modern agricultural-dependent society can be defined as globally connected sedentary populations that are continually growing in size, culturally centered in high population density urban environments, with very low daily activity levels and high consumption of energy-rich low-quality cheap food that is industrially grown. This culture is very technologically advanced and has superior medical knowledge, resulting in optimal mortality rates. However, their bodies are maladapted to the high energy imbalance promoted by the society, resulting in extremely high morbidity levels and obesity.
Finally, I will make a Pros and Cons list of this modern lifestyle. For the most part these societal traits tangible and evidence exists to back up the claims. In my next and final blog posting I will discuss the more abstract traits that cannot be measured or objectively compared.
Hunting and gathering can be defined as small band societies (10-100 members) impacted by high infant mortality rates and continuously migrate around a specific region in order to efficiently hunt and forage for most or all food from a wide range of nutrient rich, unmodified, and sometimes scarce wild plants and animals. This lifestyle requires more physical activity, but demands fewer hours and results in large amounts of leisure time.
Now, in order to have a fair comparison to between how life is today compared to what it was like Pre-Agricultural, I think I should define what it means to be living in a Western agricultural-dependent society:
Modern agricultural-dependent society can be defined as globally connected sedentary populations that are continually growing in size, culturally centered in high population density urban environments, with very low daily activity levels and high consumption of energy-rich low-quality cheap food that is industrially grown. This culture is very technologically advanced and has superior medical knowledge, resulting in optimal mortality rates. However, their bodies are maladapted to the high energy imbalance promoted by the society, resulting in extremely high morbidity levels and obesity.
Finally, I will make a Pros and Cons list of this modern lifestyle. For the most part these societal traits tangible and evidence exists to back up the claims. In my next and final blog posting I will discuss the more abstract traits that cannot be measured or objectively compared.
PROS
| CONS
|
https://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HighBloodPressure/PreventionTreatmentofHighBloodPressure/Processed-Foods-Where-is-all-that-salt-coming-from_UCM_426950_Article.jsp
"Fast Food Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
"Engineering For You Video Contest." Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.