Worst Mistake

While I understand the concern of Jared Diamond, I think to consider what has happened "a mistake" would be a mistake of its own. If he would like to return to the hunter/gatherer way of life, I'm sure he very well can, just because we now embrace agriculture doesn't mean everyone has to, it would just be a little more difficult in the now than it was then.

Regarding Diamond's concern about the average height:
"One straight forward example of what paleopathologists have learned from skeletons concerns historical changes in height. Skeletons from Greece and Turkey show that the average height of hunger-gatherers toward the end of the ice ages was a generous 5' 9" for men, 5' 5" for women. With the adoption of agriculture, height crashed, and by 3000 B. C. had reached a low of only 5' 3" for men, 5' for women. By classical times heights were very slowly on the rise again, but modern Greeks and Turks have still not regained the average height of their distant ancestors."

I fail to see exactly how this proves as a mistake for mankind. People range in height drastically, in today's society; it doesn't really make much difference. With the extra help from being in a "clumped" society, inventions (such as the step ladder, the ladder in general, stepping stool, stairs, etc.) have been created in order to assist people who may not be able to be tall enough for everything they need to do.

Also, according to his last sentence, heights are on the rise again, so if the lack of height had ever been a concern, why would it need to continue to be?

Another of his paragraphs bring up two other interesting points:
"First, hunter-gatherers enjoyed a varied diet, while early farmers obtained most of their food from one or a few starchy crops. The farmers gained cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition. (today just three high-carbohydrate plants: wheat, rice, and corn; provide the bulk of the calories consumed by the human species, yet each one is deficient in certain vitamins or amino acids essential to life.)"

Regarding the early farmers, I recall reading in Plants & Society that the move to agriculture was a gradual event, meaning the early farmers wouldn't be limited to only the crops they farmed. For today, even though only three high-carbohydrate plants are commonly consumed doesn't also mean that's all that is available. Are we required to only purchase those three plants? No, many other options are still available to us. Nobody forces today's societies to ONLY purchase wheat, rice and corn, as far as I'm aware of.

The next part of the paragraph stated:
"Epidemics couldn't take hold when populations were scattered in small bands that constantly shifted camp. Tuberculosis and diarrheal disease had to await the rise of farming, measles and bubonic plague the appearance of large cities."

While I have no doubt that these statements are true, I believe that Diamond is looking at the wrong side of this event. Because of the epidemics, I assume, people decided they would need to find cures, in turn creating paths for evolutions to occur in the world of science.

Throughout the entire essay by Jared Diamond, he makes many very valid points, but I believe in the long run, he's only looking at the negative side of what Agriculture may be responsible for doing, it's sort of like that old saying about the glass being half full or half empty, however, in this case, I think the glass is closer to 3/4's full, and only 1/4 empty. :)