Laurence Roudart

The Origins and Propagation of Agriculture: The Formation of the Contemporary Diet

The human species, Homo sapiens, is heterotrophic, meaning that to live, human beings must consume organic matter (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids) provided by other living entities, whether plants, animals, fungi, or microorganisms. To subsist in a given place, a human population must accordingly be in a position to continually procure edible organic matter. These foodstuffs may be produced on-site or imported. Thus, whatever the era, the presence of a human population in a given place is determined by the edible species available on-site and by the knowledge of techniques (implements and practices) for deriving foodstuffs from these species. But it is also determined by foods produced in other places and by the means of transporting them to their place of consumption. In short, the presence of a human population depends both on ecological and on technical and cultural conditions.