Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

five
Let Them Eat Colonies
There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.
marie antoinette
guatemalans grow some of the best coffee in the world, but most
can’t buy it at home. Neither can tourists. When I was there last I had to
wake up on freeze-dried Mexican Nescafé, even though I can buy bags of
freshly roasted Guatemalan coffee beans two blocks from my house in
Seattle. Less well known than the story of how Europe carved out global
empires is how the way Europeans treated their soil helped launch the
exploration and history of the New World. Today’s globalized agriculture
that ships local produce overseas to wealthier markets reflects the legacy of
colonial plantations established to help feed European cities.
Like many ancient agricultural societies, Europeans began working to
improve their dirt once soil fertility and access to fresh land declined. But
unlike the Mediterranean’s intense spring and summer rains that promoted
erosion from bare fields, western Europe’s gentle summer rains and
winter-spring snow pack limited erosion of even highly erodible loess soils
when farmed. Moreover, by rediscovering soil husbandry western Europeans
kept soil degradation and erosion at bay long enough to establish
colonial empires that provided new land to exploit.
Farming spread from the Middle East into Greece and the Balkans between
seven and eight thousand years ago. After moving into central
Europe’s easily worked loess, agriculture steadily advanced north and west,
reaching Scandinavia about three thousand years ago. Consuming Europe’s
83