In this lecture Toby explains how Agriculture has not actually helped mankind but instead has hindered our progress as well as causing a negative impact on our Earth.

Agriculture destroys our eco system by wiping away the lusciousness of our land and forests by depleting nutrients and destroying the topsoil by over growing huge amounts of food in designated areas. The land then requires massive amounts of fertilizer which now comes mainly from petroleum based products.

Hemenway shows that since the introduction of agriculture the human life span has decreased while degenerative diseases and even famines have increased.

People are just less healthy than pre agriculture time. Since the introduction of agriculture eating cooked foods has increased causing babies to be weaned from their mothers sooner which allows them to become pregnant again sooner since they are no longer nursing. This explains the higher population in agriculture times that requires even more food to be grown to feed them all.

Toby Hemenway is a teacher, consultant and lecturer on permaculture and ecological design. Permaculture is a philosophy of ecological design which attempts to develop sustainable human settlements and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems.