Past present and future of food

Guido Gonzalez
Food Class
Final Exam Question 1: The Past, Present, and Future of Food

Past: In our earliest stages of evolution, and even into the beginning of our most recent one, humans have been hunter-gatherers. In this system, everything was sustainable; anything that was foraged or hunted, others were left to reproduce. This gave the hunter-gatherers a virtually endless food supply. The diet this system provided them offered a high amount of protein and an excellent balance of other nutrients. They do not store the food they gather as much as we do today, and therefore have no market through which to trade. This means then, that because there is no currency or anything to own, there is no social class. No one is above anyone in this society. (Diamond)
Eventually, humans began to pick up agriculture. They began growing and raising their own food and storing it. This brought on the trading system, which later led to currency. With currency came power and social dominance which humans came to want or need. Then businesses began growing and developing a want (or need) for more efficient and cheaper methods of producing their products, which leads to new, more powerful and efficient energy sources such as electricity, oil, fossil fuels, etc. Humans then became dependent on these sources of energy, and began using them more and more, depleting them. This brings us to the present.
Present: The vast majority of the world has become dependent on fossil fuels, using them for almost everything. Transportation, the production of objects used for entertainment or comfort, and they are used in the processing of our food. In the fields where crops are grown, corn for example, instead of people actually picking the corn, there is a giant machine that cuts the stalks and pulls the corn and at the same time plants corn seeds to grow again. This giant machine is, of course, powered by fossil fuels, a power source that is being sucked dry. And the collecting of the corn is being done on a massive scale. Millions of stalks are being picked per season in one field. The animals in these places are bred and born for the sole purpose of dying and being eaten. From the day they are born, they are put through or hooked up to machines of all kinds (all run by fossil fuels). When the food products are made, they are shipped by trucks (which run on fossil fuels) to supermarkets everywhere, where they are purchased by people, most of whom haven’t a clue how the food was produced. This entire process in dependent on fossil fuels, so when that supply is gone, the whole thing will collapse. Which comes to the future of food.
Future: Peak oil is a concept that we will eventually reach our highest point of oil usage, and afterwards, the supply will decrease significantly, and so will our usage obviously. When that happens, industrialized agriculture will slowly begin to fail unless they find another energy source. When industrialized food is no longer available people, they will either have to find an alternative source for food, or die from starvation. That alternative source of food will most likely be permaculture. This is a new type of farming that involves getting everything working together. For example, a plant that needs shade will be planted under a tree, and in return the plant may give nutrients to the soil that will help the tree become healthy. At this point, permaculture would seem like the most successful, effective solution to the loss of industrialized agriculture. Another solution could be to go back to hunter gathering, but permaculture allows people to keep more of the aspects of their previous life that they are so used to. More people would be unwilling to turn to hunter gathering than those who would be willing. Permaculture would also allow communities to grow and prosper and strive well.