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It’s worth noting that one of the more successful ways to evolve is to be so appealing to humans that we cultivate the species and farm it. Incidentally, we ar
by SllX 7y ago
It’s worth noting that one of the more successful ways to evolve is to be so appealing to humans that we cultivate the species and farm it.
Incidentally, we are the only species on the planet that will sit there with our mouth burning from a jalapeño and wonder, “how can we make this hotter?”
- MisterOctober 7y agoYep, this is more or less the thesis of M. Pollan's 'The Botany of Desire,' which, whatever one thinks of his stance or other works, is a thought-provoking read [misguided treatment of Appleseed expert W.E. Jones aside]
- kpU8efre7r 7y ago+1 for Botany of Desire Great book.
- hinkley 7y agoSomeone made a joke last week about 'dogs domesticating us' and I pointed out that may not be quite as ha-ha crazy as it sounds. There's also a thing about jackfruit and elephants? Aside from tool users they're the primary consumer, and they'll grab one while they're on the march and eat it when it's break time.
- tracker1 7y agoNot so sure... considering we tend to eventually isolate a few characteristics and bread widely for them, practically eliminating most variety and creating huge mono-crop environments. Regarding another thread, if plants could chose their characteristics I would imagine we'd see anti-veg memes much like we see anti-meat memes. While there are carnivores out there as a lifestyle, it's nothing compared to what over a century of SDA has brought to veganism.
- SllX 7y agoI agree with you insofar as what you said properly applies to industrial scale agriculture. Mono cultures are easier to scale with fewer people, and only about 1% of the workforce in the US, maybe less, is a farmer in any meaningful capacity despite the sheer quantity of food that we grow and even export. We have only been doing industrial scale agriculture for about two hundred years though, and we’ve been farming for at least eleven thousand years.
- philwelch 7y agoChoice has next to nothing to do with evolution. You’re born with the genes you have and you may or may not pass them on, whether you’re a wolf or a potato. (I say “next to nothing” because with sexual reproduction, maybe you can choose which traits from the opposite sex to pass on.)
- G4E 7y agoI'm not so sure about that : take the banana for exemple. We decided that the best species was a sterile one, which can't reproduce without us. It's actually a pretty common story. And it's worth with GMO (steril crops after one or two generations) The story of the carrot matches your idea though : only the orange one survived today, solely because of farming.