Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization

My original exposure to Manning's work was his 2004 essay in Harpers Magazine, "The Oil We Eat: Following the Food Chain Back to Iraq." I bought Against the Grain the following year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I remember telling people at the time that it was one of those works that had me questioning many long held assumptions. I've recommended it many times over the years and wrote about it in my blog Torqopia back in May 2006. A quote from my post:"Interestingly, in Manning's view, it wasn't simply modern industrial farming that was the problem: agriculture from its beginning had begun to deprive us of our basic humanity--the experience of being fully alive and alert in the act of hunting for our sustenance. There were so many fascinating ideas in the book: that agriculture was an emergent system that developed spontaneously from the interplay of early humans and grasses rather than something our ancestors 'invented,' that our food supply was now more a business of producing and processing commodities than simply growing food, that agriculture was responsible for more of the world's famines than any other factor, and that the Green Revolution simultaneously reduced hunger but increased the number of people living in poverty."Note that a new book by James Scott was published in August 2017 with the same title and a significant overlap in subject material. In the preface, Scott includes Manning in a long list of people who had inspired him. Still, given the possibility of confusion, I am surprised by the title.In any case, Manning's book is a good bet.

I am a scientist. The layman should read this book as I believe all will benefit from more than the prevailing viewpoint that our agricultural history was sound. Richard Manning not only suggests, he observes, compares, supposes, shows to finally conclude as have I and at least locally a lot of my peers, that our agricultural beginnings, underpinnings and practices may be another factor in what has brought us to this unsustainable world. Permaculture, viticulture and aquaculture are new forms of cultivation with more of a view to conservation than for surplus.Agriculture marks the end of our hunter gatherer days and the beginnings of a most misnamed term "civilization". Staying put caused surplus, which brought about the need for armies to protect that surplus…etcInterestingly it took over 2000 years for us to notice that wherever "civilization" flourished with certain farming practices, soon after came drought, plagues etc, causing the land to be arid, or die in other ways. The six inches of soil we rely on for all things carries an amazing depth and breath of organisms who are the most valuable and helpful to all species, just Class Arthropoda alone, is over 100 million to one of us yet their whole existence we cannot do without for a day as they are detritivores... I won't go on read the book.

Like most books of a commentary nature, Richard Manning spends most of these pages describing how agriculture changed the world, and not with the all too common culture hype. Did we live longer, enjoy life more and have free time as member of a hunting and gathering community? It seems so. Manning's thesis is that agriculture is and historically has been the recipe for most of the evils we now look elsewhere for the demons. The dinosaurs of the Industrial Age are everywhere, but firmly in control of agriculture, through massive government subsides. Processed "foods" made from corn, wheat, rice and sugar made from corn compose most of our American diets and make us FAT!There is however a deeper metaphysic in the book that should put it on everyone's reading list, and that is what really makes us human. "Against the Grain," gives us an insight into that history, not available elsewhere.

I read a lot in search of understanding of what is going on in the society and for prediction of where we all are heading to. There is too much suffering, hunger, abuse and slavery (including the contemporary 9 to 5 office slavery) in the world and so little joy. I feel that something is going wrong, something is missing. After this book, I see nothing is missing. On the contrary, there is something in excess: security in the form of grains.I was surprised to see how the entire development of civilization took its peculiar course because of having grains as the main foodstuff. Like any kind of security, it creates attachment and halts the development of the most human qualities: compassion, communion, joy, creativity, and equality. The current disastrous growth of population is the product of this security. While the author does not speak anything about the history of wars, it looks like large-scale wars are also the result of agriculture. When I think of Elliott waves and other waves in economic development, I see they can be related to the expansion of land used for crops and advances in genetics, or lack of them and growth of population and fear. Even the balance between feminine and masculine was destroyed by growing crops and making women to give too many births.However, today there is no land untouched by crops; nothing is left for people to maintain the old agricultural and patriarchal system and its values. This world was created by wheat and rice and corn, and... with too many people... lack of water and land... it can be destroyed by them. I wish that many people adopt the lifestyle of the author who (so poetically he describes it) hunts for his meat and eats vegetables but not grains.Moreover, grains are clearly not healthy (e.g. see the book Wheat Belly). However, people in general are not that conscientious and fear change, and will be forced to change by "nature". This process will possibly be deep and painful. The curious thing I now know from this book is that pre-agriculture people who didn't grow grains had more leisure time and were more artistic, and supportive of each other. I live in a country with nomadic heritage where crops were introduced only recently, and I see and feel the differences between cultures from the inside.I am really, really grateful to Richard Manning for his profound ideas and research.

Fascinating read - puts you off high fructose corn syrup for good

excellent book, highly recommended

I first came across Richard Manning, speaking on one of the Anthropik podcasts, which can probably be tracked down on iTunes, or the web. Well worth looking for, it was an outstanding interview. I sought out and bought this book on the back of that interview.The book is a little episodic, more a series of essays than a single book. He writes well about nature and the book is well researched, in diverse fields.He puts put across some unusual and interesting ideas. In particular the idea of catastrophe agriculture, that mankind has adopted and adapted plants that are early colonisers of bare ground as food crops, and therefore we are constantly trying to recreate a bare earth, to grow these crops.If you are in woods, and you see a toppled tree, the soil beneath is thin, often pale clay, or natural, but above and around you is a splendid degree of biomass, and biodiversity. As gardeners or farmers we are trying to create deep rich soils, but at the price of a lack of diversity, and constantly importing material. Maybe we should be seeking a different model for cultivation.Try out the Amazon Look Inside function and have a browse, this is a book to make you think, recommended.

I am just into the book (slow reader) but is so far very inciteful.Richard Manning covers the issues of how agriculture has caused the explosive growth of the world's population.Endless food = endless growth for better or worse.So now I must get back to the book and see what new revelations await.An excellent read for those of inquiring minds.(I bough the book used (new) and cheap. I have trouble with screen based books.)

Rivelatore