The hottest Agricultural history Substack posts right now

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Top Links 1038 Oil loses its bite. The historical diffusion of farming. Landscapes of power & the "Chance for Peace".

Chartbook • 557 implied HN points • 11 Mar 26
đź’ľ History Agricultural history
  1. Oil is becoming less central to the American economy and no longer drives prices, politics, or growth the way it used to.
  2. The historical spread of farming fundamentally reshaped societies and landscapes, driving long-term demographic and economic change.
  3. Power structures and geography shape political outcomes, and there are occasional moments—like a 'Chance for Peace'—when conditions align to make peace possible.

The Wetlands Interregnum

Adjacent Possible • 126 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
đź’ľ History Agricultural history
  1. Corona satellites used mid-air film recovery and dual panoramic cameras to capture stereoscopic, high-resolution photos decades before digital imaging, giving a true 3D view of the land.
  2. Those 3D images showed ancient landscapes were more varied and less permanently arid than earlier archaeologists assumed, which challenges the idea that states arose solely to build irrigation in hopeless deserts.
  3. The 1995 declassification and transfer of Corona film to public archives and the USGS opened a priceless historical dataset for scientists to study environmental change and rethink the origins of agriculture.

Homesteading: Lessons from Ancient History

Who is Robert Malone • 16 implied HN points • 27 Dec 25
đź’ľ History Agricultural history
  1. Cities concentrate health risks: crowded urban living with poor water and sanitation has historically raised infant mortality and infectious disease compared with rural areas.
  2. Grain-based agriculture enabled cities and states but often worsened health: heavy reliance on wheat and other cereals increased cavities, nutritional deficiencies, and stunting, while diets richer in animal foods supported stronger, healthier bodies.
  3. Modern processed-carb diets repeat old mistakes: ultra-processed, calorie-dense but nutrient-poor foods produce an "overfed but undernourished" population, so increasing whole, nutrient-dense animal and plant foods and reducing processed carbohydrates may improve family and child health.

A Journey from Trans-Baikal to the Amur Through Manchuria - Peter Kropotkin, 1865 (3/4)

The Library of Alexandria Ultima • 2 implied HN points • 01 Feb 26
đź’ľ History Agricultural history
  1. Mergen, now called Nenjiang City, is the main place described and is presented as the largest Chinese settlement the traveler passed through.
  2. The journey had two aims: to find the quickest route between Trans‑Baikal and the Amur and to evaluate commercial opportunities along that route.
  3. The land around Mergen is said to be very fertile black earth, far more suitable for farming than the taiga, and that agricultural richness could have supported a much larger settlement if controlled.

Selling Kelp

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 19 implied HN points • 23 Sep 21
đź’ľ History Agricultural history
  1. Kelp was once seen as a valuable resource in America for making potash, especially during a time when the country depended on imports from Germany.
  2. Despite initial excitement and plans for kelp processing plants in Puget Sound, they mostly failed to succeed due to stronger competition and external factors like the end of the war.
  3. Other ventures to use kelp, like creating a candy substitute, also did not meet success, showing that not all ideas for using local resources thrive.
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The Ostrich: America’s Once and Future Bird

Bird History • 0 implied HN points • 29 Aug 23
đź’ľ History Agricultural history
  1. In the late 1800s, there was a boom in ostrich farming in America due to high demand for ostrich feathers, which were a luxury accessory for women's fashion.
  2. Ostrich farming proved to be a profitable business, with each ostrich feather fetching up to $5, leading to a surge in ostrich farms and tourist attractions around them.
  3. The domestic ostrich industry saw a revival in the 1980s, but it eventually collapsed due to a speculative bubble, showing the cyclical nature of ostrich farming in America.