Hi Andrea and Ashley, 

This is a bit of an oversimplification, but there is quite a lot of
interesting and supportive data. Wolfgang Lutz connected the spread of
agriculture with European propensities for autoimmune and other modern
diseases (1). Stanislas Tanchou reported on the increase of cancer among
those who ate a more "civilized" diet (2). Brian Fagan, in _The Long Summer_
documents the repeated disintegration of civilizations, from Sumerians to
Egyptians, to Romans, to Mayans (3) due to increasing reliance on grains.
Closer to home, Daphne Roe chronicled the spread of pellagra that killed
hundreds of thousands of impoverished Americans of the south who were overly
reliant upon corn for nutrition. As each culture became increasingly
dependent upon grain production their general health declined and their
society slowly disintegrated. The skeletal remains of these people show
signs of iron deficiency, growth abnormalities, increased dental caries,
declining stature, and malnutrition. 

Fagan's view is that the climate was solely responsible for this social
disintegration due to climactic desertification of these areas. While I do
not deny or even doubt Fagan's data, grain cultivation, especially in
conjunction with irrigation, results in rapid desertification, almost
irrespective of climate. Only on floodplains, such as the Nile valley, where
new soil is deposited with each spring flood, is this dynamic thwarted. Yet
several successions of Egyptian cultures disintegrated or were supplanted.
This suggests, to me, that climate was not the only factor, although Fagan
does make a pretty good case for a combination of over-population and
climactic change as the primary factors in this social decay. Nonetheless,
Fagan's data also support the belief that excessive nutritional reliance
upon grain consumption contributes to cultural decline.    

Further, in response to Ashley's question, over-farming does more than
deplete the soil, although that is certainly one result of continuous
cultivation. Farming also makes the soil ripe for wind erosion and other
hazards. The North American dust bowl of the 1930's demonstrates our
continued failure to learn from history. Further, when irrigated, the soil
becomes increasingly saline, as most of the water evaporates leaving behind
the irrigation water's mineral salts. Finally, cultivation kills or depletes
many of the micro-organisms that contribute to the fertility of soils
through their activities that lead to conversion of soil constituents making
them available for uptake by plants. 

My interpretation of the evidence clearly suggests that cultural reliance
upon grain production for nutrition is a self-limiting activity. When we
start down the road of increasing dependence upon grains, our entire culture
is headed toward self-destruction through malnutrition and reduced fertility
(as mentioned by Ashley)as well as through a wide range of illnesses, and we
are just beginning to realize the diversity, frequency, and severity of this
result of reliance upon grains. And our flawed food-guide pyramid continues
to instruct our school children in the conventional nutritional wisdom that
has contributed to the devastation of every dominant culture of our
historical past.      


Sources
1. Lutz W J, "The Colonisation of Europe and Our Western Diseases" _Medical
Hypotheses_ 1995; 45: 115-120

2. Tanchou S, "Statistics of Cancer" _London Lancet_ 1843; Aug 5, 593
3. Fagan, B. _The Long Summer_ Perseus Books Group, New York, N.Y., 2004
4. Roe, Daphne. _Plague of Corn_ Cornell Univ. Press. Ithaca, N.Y., 1973
 
Ron Hoggan, Ed. D.
co-author of Dangerous Grains ISBN: 1-58333-129-8
http://www.dangerousgrains.com  

-----Original Message-----
From: Paleolithic Eating Support List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Ashley Moran
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 1:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Why Rome fell

On Feb 03, 2006, at 3:00 pm, Andrea Hughett wrote:

> In my medieval history class last night we were
> discussing the fall of Rome, and one of the reasons,
> according to my professor, was that the Romans ate
> mainly bread, and drank water from lead pipes, leading
> to lead poisoning and iron deficiency.  This in turn
> affected not only their intelligence and reaction
> speed, but also lowered the birth rate drastically.


Andrea,

I've wondered about this recently too.  Many civilisations have  
collapsed because they destroyed the land they were farming.  Do you  
know if there is any evidence that over-farming helped their decline?


> Meanwhile the barbarians on the other side of the
> Rhine ate lots of meat and greens, which made them
> strong, healthy, and prolific.

To hell with civilisation.  I wanna be a barbarian :D


Ashley