h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi WP

Regarding your Entry at A2054675, you mention the effect of close-proximity living on increased disease, but don't say nything about susceptibility of crops to disease.

Wondered whetherr youd consider asking Editorial Feedback to add a para to the effect of:

'This greater concentration of growing plants of a particular type was a marvellous food eresource for insects (monoculture). It concentrated their feeding and breeding. The neede to store produce and the keepin of water reservoirs for domestic use was also beneficial to insects. Hence Man needed to control insects and this led ultimately to the development of chemical pesticides'.

(This means that that I can justify making a hyperlink to your Entry from my college 'Virtual Learning Environment)

Hi Big Al,

Thanks for your note - what is your college Virtual Learning Environment about? It sounds interesting.

What you say makes sense, however one thing seems to stand out more than the development of chemical pesticides (which is probably quite recent - a hundred or so years) would be the development of non-chemical means of avoiding disease i.e. the breeding of more resistant varieties over time. This of course happened in animals too. Many of the things I talk about in the entry are fundamental changes relating to how human society and culture changed as a result of the move to agrarian societies. To me it's a more complex issue than just pesticides.

Another thing that would need to be checked is to what extent monoculture existed in farming up to quite recently. Nowadays, farming is extremely monocultural, but by understanding is that this was not possible in the past - old meadows had all sorts of different plants growing in them. I think this needs to be verified first if possible.

Cheers

Woodpigeon

Well, perhaps 'monoculture' is too strong a word.

However, certainly between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago people started planting seeds of the grains and vegetables they ate; so that, instead of having to search for and gather food, they grew crops near their homes. Hence there would be a greater concentration of the foodstuffs Man liked to eat - which would've been attractive to insects and other pests also.

By VLE I mean a facility called Moodle, on which lecturers can post lesson notes, background reading material, Powerpoint presentations etc, etc, which students can access either at college or from their homes.