• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      You know, like the agrarian peoples worldwide who all independently figured this out almost immediately after starting agriculture…

      They’re saying no farmers could have figured this out, because only farmers could…

      • camembear@sopuli.xyz
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        4 days ago

        as if by doing stuff, you figure stuff out about that stuff.

        I think critical thinking is the most endangered thing out there

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          It’s like Stonehendge and the Pyramids…

          I forget what comedian said it, but:

          If all you had was a shit ton of gold, slaves, time, and a bunch of rocks, you’d figure it out too

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Definitely not.

      What would you observe? You plant the wheat where you always plant it, because it is the piece of land that you cleared from trees with hard work. You notice that the plants get worse from year to year.

      The first thing was that people started not to plant anything and used the field as meadow to put sheep, goats, or cows on it. Maybe just chicken, if push comes to shove. They do know that plants grow better in places where the animals fertilize the ground.

      This just lead to crop alternation: one year corn, one year grass.

      The relatively modern idea of rotating three different kinds of crops in a specific order came thousands(!) of years later.

      • camembear@sopuli.xyz
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        4 days ago

        You know, people that work land have cleared the plants on that place specifically, because they know their soil.

        No one would waste effort testing if that’s a good patch of land.

        I’m sorry, I think we come from very different places of life, we might speak the same language, but you have theoretical, untested knowledge, and I’ve been down in the dirt a few too many years.