What connects the cannabis plant and the cereal wheat? first started growing hemp for use in , paper and other materials. However, an analysis of this ancient marijuana showed relatively low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient we know today.
Although the exact date that ancient agricultural workers discovered and enhanced the mind-altering properties of the cannabis plant is unknown, there is academic consensus that it may have originated in Central Asia at least 2,500 years ago. has evolved to be simpler. The use of wheat as a source of nutrition predates agriculture. We don’t know when the first hunter-gatherer baked bread, but at least we know he was making bread 14,000 years ago. Since the first bread, wheat has grown in importance but decreased in stature. The ancient hieroglyphs and the much higher fields painted by modern artists like Pieter Brueghel the Elder are not artistic licenses: they reflect the reality of the time (the hieroglyphs may be somewhat exaggerated). I don’t know).
Both weed and wheat have been refined and developed by farmers over time. This process has been greatly accelerated for both since World War II.During the Third Agricultural Revolution, modern technology and technology transfer made farmers more reliable, tastier and more resilient. In the world of wheat, the person most responsible for this transformation was American agronomist Norman Borlaug. Shorter, more disease-resistant crops, which he helped develop and introduced in Mexico, India and Pakistan, are credited with helping more than a billion people around the world.
Parallel changes have taken place in the weed world. Just as Borlaug’s agricultural successors are trying to emulate him by developing ever more resilient and high-yielding crops, so are his counterparts in the criminal economy trying to do the same. As a result, street cannabis is more potent, more addictive, and more likely to cause mental health problems than it was 50 years ago.
The greater potency and dangers of modern cannabis are an indictment of global efforts to combat the harm of drug production and use through criminalization. But this is a challenge even for states that have decriminalized cannabis, with research suggesting that cannabis’ effectiveness and harm are still the norm on the streets.
The resilience and reliability of modern wheat and progress against poverty and hunger are globalization’s triumphs. But it also highlights that this very process has made us more vulnerable to “surprise” shocks. Emerging diseases and extreme climate change could cause ever more widespread damage to the world’s wheat stocks and other crops. In a more extreme version of this problem, he has already made one kind of banana extinct. In fact, the banana as we know it may cease to exist by the end of his 21st century.
Part of the answer to both lies in landraces: cultivated, genetically heterogeneous plant and animal breeds that lack many of the advantages of more dominant breeds but are an important part of their resilience. The problem is that the landrace he is a one-club golfer. They may be more resilient to certain diseases or better at weathering certain symptoms of the climate crisis, but they are more vulnerable to most diseases. And just as modern cannabis is highly addictive, one of the reasons the most common strains of certain plants and animals have become so common is that they taste better.
The good news is that resilience can be built fairly easily. We know what works to preserve native species — subsidizing farmers, funding seed banks, and funding plant researchers. But while farmers and research institutes in richer countries are getting more funding, in poorer countries the focus is on today’s cheap grains rather than tomorrow’s food security, for obvious reasons. However, maintaining food security and maintaining plant diversity face challenges. As with most disaster prevention, money needs to be spent here and now to prepare for a crisis that may never come. Unlike artificial intelligence or nuclear threats, agriculture isn’t particularly dramatic or politically sexy. Nonetheless, those who want to “save humanity” or build resilience against long-term risks should worry about native species as much as they do about chatbot ChatGPT.
stephen.bush@ft.com
