Timeline of agriculture and food technology
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Paleolithic
- 30,600 BC – Pestle used as a tool in southern Italy to grind oats.[1]
Neolithic Revolution
- 8,500 BC – Neolithic Revolution, the first agricultural revolution, begins in the ancient Near East
- 8,000 BC – was domesticated wheat at PPNA sites in the Levant.
- 7500 BC – PPNB sites across the Fertile Crescent growing wheat, barley, chickpeas, peas, beans, flax and bitter vetch. Sheep and goat domesticated.
- 7000 BC – agriculture had reached southern Europe with evidence of emmer and einkorn wheat, barley, sheep, goats, and pigs suggest that a food producing economy is adopted in Greece and the Aegean.
- 7000 BC – Cultivation of wheat, sesame, barley, and eggplant in Mehrgarh (modern day Pakistan).
- 7000 BC – Domestication of cattle and chicken in Mehrgarh, modern day Pakistan.
- 6800 BC – Rice domesticated in southeast Asia.
- 6500 BC – Evidence of cattle domestication in Turkey.[citation needed] Some sources say this happened earlier in other parts of the world.
- 6001 BC – Archaeological evidence from various sites on the Iberian peninsula suggest the domestication of plants and animals.
- 6000 BC – Granary built in Mehrgarh for storage of excess food.
- 5500 BC – Céide Fields in Ireland are the oldest known field systems in the world, this landscape consists of extensive tracts of land enclosed by brick walls.[2]
- 4000 BC – In Mehrgarh, the domestication of numerous crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as a wide range of domestic animals, including the Domestic Asian Water Buffalo, an animal that remains essential to intensive agricultural production throughout Asia today.
- 4000 BC – Egyptians discover how to make bread using yeast
- 4000 BC – Evidence for rice domestication in the Khorat Plateau area of northwestern Thailand.[citation needed]
- 4000 BC – First use of light wooden ploughs in Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq)
- 3500 BC – Irrigation was being used in Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq)
- 3500 BC – First agriculture in the Americas, around Central Amazonia or Ecuador
- 3000 BC – Turmeric, cardamom, pepper and mustard are harvested in the Indus Valley Civilization.
- 3000 BC – Fermentation of dough, grain, and fruit juices is in practice.
- 3000 BC – Sugar produced in India
Antiquity
- 2600 BC – Large-scale commercial timbering of cedars in Phoenicia (Lebanon) for export to Egypt and Sumeria. Similar commercial timbering in South India.
- 1700 BC – Wind powered machine developed by Babylonians
- 1300 BC – Creation of canal linking the Nile delta to the Red Sea
- 691 BC – First aqueduct (approx. 50 miles long) constructed to bring water to Nineveh.
- 530 BC – Tunnel of Eupalinos first underground aqueduct
- 500 BC – The moldboard iron plough is invented in China
- 500 BC – Row cultivation of crops using intensive hoeing to weed and conserve moisture practised in China
- 300 BC – Efficient trace harness for plowing invented in China
- 200 BC – Efficient collar harness for plowing invented in China
- 100 BC – Rotary winnowing fan invented in China
- 100 BC – The multi-tube seed drill is invented in China
- AD 200 – The fishing reel invented in China
- 600 – The distillation of alcohol in China
- 607 – The Chinese begin constructing a massive canal system to connect the Yellow and Yangtze rivers
Modern technological advances
- 1700 – British Agricultural Revolution begins
- 1804 - Vincenzo Dandolo writes several treatises of agriculture and sericulture.
- 1809 – French confectioner Nicolas Appert invents canning
- 1837 – John Deere invents steel plough
- 1863 – International "Corn Show" in Paris with corn varieties from different countries
- 1866 – Gregor Mendel publishes his paper describing Mendelian inheritance
- 1871 – Louis Pasteur invents pasteurization
- 1895 – Refrigeration for domestic and commercial food preservation introduced in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively.
- 1913 - The Haber process, also called the Haber–Bosch process, made it possible to produce ammonia, and thereby fertilize, on an industrial scale.
- 1930 – First use of aerial photos in Earth sciences and agriculture.
Green Revolution
- 1944 – Green Revolution begins in Mexico
- 1974 – China creates the first hybrid rice.[3] See Yuan Longping.
- 2000 – Genetically modified plants cultivated around the world.
- 2005 – Lasers used to replace stickers by writing on food to "track and trace" and identify individual pieces of fresh fruit.[4]
See also
- Agricultural revolution (disambiguation)
- Agriculture
- Broad spectrum revolution
- Corporate farming
- Electrical energy efficiency on United States farms
- Fertile Crescent
- History of agriculture
- Neolithic founder crops
- New World Crops
- Timeline of genetically modified organisms
- Timeline of historic inventions
References
- ^ [1] Multistep food plant processing at Grotta Paglicci (Southern Italy) around 32,600 cal B.P.
- ^ Céide Fields. Visitor Centre Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland.
- ^ Hybrid rice for Food Security. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- ^ Moskin, Julia. (July 19, 2005). "Tattooed Fruit Is on Way". New York Times.