Catalysts and Corrosions

Agriculture

1. What are the catalysts of the technology or science in support of the state?

Agriculture brings everyone together under a governments soverignity, because citizens eligible receives a block of land, and then they must grow and cultivate it in order to feed their families as well as make a profit to pay for other necessities. This in turn supports the state, and any taxes imposed because the citizens of the state who received the land to use how they see fit are indebted to the governing body.

Agriculture allowed for a creation of a surplus, which in turn created a class of people of the state who controlled and protected these agricultural areas and thus didn’t have to farm for themselves. This created a government who protected the producers, because they receive the produce in exchange for their defense of the state. Because of the surplus, people are eligible to break out from the agriculture profession, and some argue that this has been a crucial factor in socio-economic change.

Agriculture created many different techniques and methods to properly harvest their land, and through the many hundreds of years several techniques have been developed and are still in use today. Flooding the fields in order to harvest more rice, spreading manure to keep the soil healthy, irrigation techniques to flow water in certain directions through the land- all of these are methods that came about by way of agriculture in support of the state. In ancient Spain for example, an irrigation system was in place where water would flow from the top of the hill to the bottom in a maze-like fashion through the separate lands, and there would be someone who would monitor how much water was allocated to each cultivators land- this example shows that agriculture and its methods for growth were in support of the state, because they're were no major problems with this system of irrigation while it lasted.

2. What are the corrosions of the technology or science that undermine the support of the state?

Many governments have subsidized agriculture in order to ensure an adequate food supply. These tactics, according to Science Academy Recommends Resumption of Natural Farming from the New York Times in 1986, are inefficient, and environmentally damaging. This undermines the state in that governments are sacrificing something extremely important (the environment) in the favor of food conservation, which is a poor method to begin with.

In order for people to cultivate their land, the state first had to obtain it, many times by force. The classic example is forcing the native Americans farther and farther away from the land that was rightfully theirs, all in the name of the sovereignty of the state. Agriculture created the need for land to cultivate and make a surplus, violence is unfortunately a byproduct.

Agriculture created a multitude of jobs for people throughout human history, but this of course came with a price- inhibiting growth on other job occupations that can push society father and make living better in the long run. America employed over 80% of workers in agriculture for over a hundred years, which inhibited on industrialization- everyone was working their own farmland! The state claimed a monopoly over the land from the native Americans, and it wasn’t until the majority of the land passed down to these workers from the state started to fill up did people branch out into other occupations, thus leading America finally into Industrial Revolutions to make use of the abundance of natural resources.