Free Essay On Comparing Hunting And Gathering With Agriculture

Hunting and gathering can be defined as subsistence mode through which people obtain food from wild resources without relying on domesticated animal or plants. Hunting and gathering dominated in two and half million years ago before people took agriculture seriously. Some people practice the same system of living, but the percentage has lowered due to increased population. Just like domestication of animals and plants, hunting and gathering is a way of living that requires less time and concentration.
Some of the misconceptions on hunting and gathering include the notion that people had to hunt for meat whereas they used to scavenge large proportions of the meat from the kills made by other animals. Again, the people had to work constantly to get food thus leaving no space for civilization. The reality is that they used less time (like five hours looking for food) thus leaving more leisure time than the civilized people. There is also the misconception that hunters and gatherers are malnourished; however, studies show that hunters and gatherers experienced infrequent famines.
Agriculture, on the other hand, allows people to domesticate plants and animal. Through agriculture, people can select the breeds that match their environment thus there is a sufficient food production to feed a large population. This works as one of the crucial advantages of agriculture as compared to hunting and gathering. For instance, a wheat farmer can domesticate the plant in such a way that production does not drop, and is easy to harvest. However, there has been a misconception that due to high population, agriculture is easy to do; however, the reality is that the agriculture varies with climate. Agriculture is usually time-consuming, thus the return for the agricultural practice could be relatively low as compared to hunting and gathering.
Evolutionary origin of agriculture can be dated between five thousand to twelve thousand years ago. It originated from Southeast Asia following the practice of root crop production. Years later, Iraq, Israel and Syria started with barley as well as wheat farming. After the domestication of plants, animal domestication started, and this saw a high supply of meat to the farmers.
Agriculture has a variety of advantages as compared to hunting and gathering. For instance, farming ensures constant food production to feed the population and thus, agriculturists can grow in number and at a fast rate. On the contrary, hunters and gatherers depended on hunting or scavenging where they were not assured of a catch. Additionally, unlike hunters and gatherers, people who practice agriculture can live permanently in one place while hunters and gatherers kept on moving to different areas looking food. In the modern world, machines have made agriculture easy since they have reduced the work force in areas like in planting and ploughing. Through this, agriculture supplies food to the growing population living in rural as well as urban places.
Hunting and gathering, on the other hand, is not time consuming and does not require much knowledge. The disadvantage of hunting and gathering would be the isolation they face in the current world. Hunters and gatherers live in forests with forgeable foods as well as with wild animals. Since their food is not guaranteed, they live in small populations and thus, it takes big land to accommodate a small population. In the modern world, they have been faced by a problem when governments impose special laws against poaching.
In conclusion, agriculture appears to be most preferred in the world as compared to hunting and gathering. It is usually through agriculture that the growing population can be fed sufficiently. However, hunting and gathering has diminished with time after introduction of agriculture.