Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Organic Agriculture, Sustainability and Consumer
Preferences
Terrence Thomas and Cihat Gunden
Additional information is available at the end of the chapter
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/58428
1. Introduction
1
Scholars acknowledge that early man provided food for himself and his family via gathering
what was available to him in his surroundings; he relied on nature for his sustenance. As hunter
gatherers, man lacked the capacity to manipulate the environment to produce food beyond
the amount that was available naturally. Consequently, there was minimal or no environmen‐
tal impact, the human population remained small and in balance with nature; hunter gatherers'
population could not expand beyond the available sources of food [1-3]. Over time, however,
as hunter gatherers learn to cope with their environment and became more adept at gathering
food, the population increased, leading to the next stage in the evolution of the food production
system—the Neolithic revolution or the development of agriculture. The development of
agriculture led to sedentary communities, increase in population size and the specialization
of labor, all of which facilitated technological development, i.e., improved tools, dwellings and
means for transporting water and materials. In sum, man learned and applied techniques for
domesticating animals and plants, or put another way, agriculture was invented. Yet, at this
early stage in the practice of agriculture, man's interaction with his sustenance base could be
described as “give and take”; a relationship in which man essentially learned from his
experience living in the environment, a sort of 'symbiotic” relationship with his sustenance
base that resulted in little or no adverse environmental impact. Even when there was adverse
impact, the population was small and technology environmentally benign, which allowed the
sustenance base to recover. The invention of agriculture laid the foundation for the develop‐
ment of civilization, increase in knowledge and man's capability to manipulate the environ‐
ment. It was not until the birth of modern science and its application to the development of
