"With the introduction of agriculture mankind entered upon a long period of meanness, misery, and madness, from which they are only now being freed by the beneficent operation of the machine. …Companionship and cooperation are essential elements in the happiness of the average man, and these are to be obtained in industry far more fully than in agriculture.” - Bertrand Russel (1872-1970). The Conquest of Happiness, 10, 1930

Agriculture, for all the virtues that living a life engaged with it can bring, has also lead to many a mean and miserable life. It is a joy to garden for health, wealth, and happiness, but not quite so much a joy when your whole livelihood can depend upon the advent of a single harvest, or the vagaries of the rain. What's more, because of the human tendency to always look for the best things in life, we will tend to expect, not our poorest harvests, but our better ones. As we grow our societies, the foundation of wealth is in the land, but so too can that land be exploited. A bad farmer looks as well as a good farmer, and sometimes even better, over a short period of time. As the results of poorly managed fields come home to roost over the course of decades with lost topsoil, lost nutrients, and lost knowledge all taking their toll, we enter into a space of frailty - One bad storm blows away our fields, or a single war ruins the harvest. Agriculture has also been that which enabled us to move past an existence as hunter-gatherers, enabling us to form states and society. this leads directly to war and law, to destruction and control. furthermore, for most of history agriculture has involved back-breaking labor for most of the entire race of mankind, year upon year. 

It seems to only be in small steps that we are freed from some of these terrible effects, by the advent of the plow and the harvester expanding the area one person can tend, or by manure and ammonia, which allows the land to last beyond a scant handful of years. As hands are freed from the farm, they find other work to do. Work which is, we hope, meaningful and enjoyable, now that ninety-five percent of the human race is no longer locked down toil in farm and field. Russel seems to think that the companionship and cooperation which we crave are more easily to be found in industry than agriculture, and I wonder to what extent this is actually the case. 

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