Quick bump: Growing better

Apparently modern agriculture was invented when an ancient government started governing better.

Specifically, that government started doing more to respect property rights and economic incentives. That led to people being able to eat better after discovering agricultural practices we still use today.

Historian Dr Roy Casagranda explains:

Around the year 800, the Arabs invented modern agriculture. The way they did that was they de-peasantized the population of farmers that they had inherited when they conquered the Persian and Roman empires.

And they created private property with the hope that then the peasants who are now free, who now own their own land could do whatever they wanted to with it. They would experiment and they'd figure out the best ways to do agriculture instead of just doing the same old thing over and over again. In other words, the incentive of profit motivation might trigger something. And it does.

One of the things they figure out is crop rotation. They're the guys who invent that.