• brandon@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    If the required labor was split up more equitably then farmers wouldn’t have to work sunup to sundown.

    The entire point of large scale agriculture is that it’s more efficient than individual peasants working a single field or whatever.

    Nobody is saying that farming isn’t hard work, but modern farming should produce more food per man-hour than neolithic farming (or hunter/gathering), right? So why should it be that farm workers now have to work harder than prehistoric people?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      5 months ago

      So why should it be that farm workers now have to work harder than prehistoric people?

      Do they? Because what has been said so far is that hunter-gatherers didn’t work as hard. Or do you mean pre-agriculture prehistoric people? Because agriculture predates written history by thousands of years.

      Once we started farming and herding, the work was harder. But also necessary. That’s just how things are.

      • brandon@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 months ago

        The question I am posing is not “do modern farm workers labor harder than prehistoric hunter gathers” (they do).

        Instead, the question is “should modern farm workers labor harder than prehistoric hunter gathers”.

        Farming is more efficient than gathering. That’s why we farm. So why is it the case that modern farm workers are working harder?

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          5 months ago

          Because feeding eight billion people isn’t related to how many hours of work individuals have to do in order to achieve that unless you don’t have enough people to do the work.