How long have the Europeans had food production technology (farms, crops, etc.) before they colonized America?

Question

How long have the European farmers that immigrated to America had the tech of food production before they came to America?

Answer 1

since like the 2nd Century BCE, but the actual art of agriculture is much, much older. the art remained the same, the technology changed.

M

Answer 2

Lexico, you said {I am assuming an ideal situation where there is the political will to feed everyone. When energy prices go high enough to make the shipping and distribution too costly, much of the food relief work will be affected as there will be more urgent business to take care at home; the Gov't feeding its own people.} That is a Communism type of agriculture, and that spells real disaster. Texas R has the best answer, except that 80% 0f our corn and soybeans are not used to feed livestock. About 17% is for livestock feed and 3% for actual food. Nearly 100% of the soybeans used as livestock feed is a byproduct after the oil is removed for food. A large percentage of corn fed to livestock is also byproduct as well, from corn oil, high fructose corn syrup and Distiller's dried grain. The US has the large amount export to fall back on before we have a real food shortage, but using that exported grain would be big problems for other countries.

Answer 3

We have just come back from a holiday in Orkney, where some of the visitor attractions we saw were Neolithic stone dwellings and monuments such as Skara Brae, Maes Howe, and the Ring of Brodgar. We had an excellent guide who explained why these could only have been constructed after the development of an economy based on farming, instead of on hunting. The earliest of these monuments are dated at 3000 BC, some 4600 years before the European colonization of America.

Answer 4

The first intensive agricultural production in Europe appears to have been between 5000 and 6000 BC, perhaps as a result of contact with Near Eastern migrants. Cereal harvesting had occurred in that region between 10 and 12,000 BC.

Answer 5

Easy time line // Birth of Jesus, Zero AD or within a few years. Since Greece and Rome both predate Jesus by 500 years or more, trying to keep this simple, and since Europeans began invading American in the early to mid 1500s your answer would be ywo thousand years. Actually purist, who are horriied by my antics, will, will say farming began in Greece around 2000 BC but my math is terrible so I prefer my method.

Here is a link about Olive Harvesting certainly a farming activity.

However if you wish tio zero in on England then farming began during the neolithic era which ran from 5000 to 1000 BC and again my math is rusty but trust me it takes farming back another two housand years making 4000 or so years that people were farming in Europe before they conquered the Americas.

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/stonehenge/stonehenge.php
'''The Neolithic period between 5000 and 1000 BC was no exception.

The distinguishing feature of the Neolithic – the new stone age - was a gradual transition from hunting and gathering to farming. The spread of agriculture over Europe represented a major cultural transition. It was a gradual process, and took several millenia after the earliest farming in the Near East. One reason for the delay was the climate – north western Europe was colder, and these conditions required adaptation.

On a global perspective, agriculture was able to support increasingly large numbers of people, which led to new forms of political and social organisation. Societies became more hierarchical. Leaders were now buried with marks of their special status, ranging from the the treasures of the graves of the Tiszapolgar cemetary on the Great Hungarian Plain to the splendour of the Egyptian pyramids. Craftsmen thrived in this new social milieu. New materials came into use – gold, copper, and its alloy, bronze. The smelting and casting of metals began to be developed. The growing beaurocracies encouraged the adoption of writing. Larger city states stimulated the development of warfare, which stimulated larger defences.The first cities were being born in the fertile valleys of the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Indus and the Yellow river. These were the four primary civilisations of the Old world.

But in Europe, it was the age of the megalith, and here, perhaps the most prestigious megalithic monument is Stonehenge, presiding on the rolling hills of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England."""


http://www.explorecrete.com/nature/olive-oil-history.html
The olive tree was a particularly important symbol for the ancient Greeks. It was connected to their diet and their religion, and was used as a decorative motif on vases, in gold jewellery and elsewhere. It was considered a symbol of peace, wisdom and victory. That is why the winners of the Olympic Games were crowned with a wreath of wild olive (the cotinus).

Olives in antiquity were usually gathered by beating the tree with rods, although ancient authors condemned this practice. Pliny repeatedly recommends: “Do not shake and beat your trees. Gathering by hand each year ensures a good harvest.”

The olive-harvesting knowledge of the ancients, incredibly advanced for its time, was often aided by astronomy, used to predict poor harvests. Thales of Miletus, for example, used his astronomical observations to predict an excellent harvest for 596 BC. He immediately established many new oil-presses on Chios and Melos, making the islands’ inhabitants rich in a year. Democritus also studied the relationship between good harvests and the positions of the stars. """


Pax------------------------

Answer 6

1000s of years before the USA began we started havesting wild crops.

Answer 7

I dont know, but for a long time. Not much help am I. But that is a good question, I never really tought about that!

Answer 8

at least 2500 years