3.1: Origin of Farming as Coevolution and Coupled Human-Nature Interactions

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Introduction

As we presented in module one, agriculture is currently the predominant environment-food system, including the production of both crops and livestock for human consumption. But it was not always this way and other environment-food systems continue to exist, as exemplified by the world's wild-caught ocean fisheries. Module 2.1 first examines the human-natural systems of hunter-gatherers, and then the human-natural systems of early agriculture. The domestication of plants and animals, together with the origins of agriculture, resulted in some of the most profound transformations of environments and human societies, and are a key part of the Anthropocene or "human recent past" presented in the first module. Module 2.2 then describes more recent environment-food systems and those of today.