Geoff Jones observes:

The stability of agricultural economies is a myth that is intertwined with the power of government (to which agriculture gave rise). Agriculture is really a catalyst for destabilizing growth. Compare the degree of sociopolitical and economic stability of the several thousand years since the advent of agriculture to the hundreds of thousands of years previous to it when our genus depended on foraging. Humans were able to adapt with resilience and grace through times of cataclismic climate change, and indeed spread and prosper. Prosperity was not excessive however, and not accompanied by major events of famine, disease, economic and ecological collapse, warfare, and tyrrany that have been enjoyed with regularity by agriculturalists.

Source: email 12/29/2004 12:46 PM