Insults to Agriculture

Eric L. Jones
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Eric L. Jones: University of Buckingham

Chapter Chapter 11 in Barriers to Growth, 2020, pp 93-99 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Agriculture was beset by plant and animal diseases, weeds and predatory species. Outstanding scourges were cattle plagues and the liver rot in sheep kept on wet clays. Although harm might be reduced, remedies were seldom conclusive. Responses were superstitious or managerial rather than scientific; they included quarantining and rotating crops, which had high opportunity costs. Killing pests was ‘rat farming’, leaving the best food and breeding sites in which predators could recover. Problems were recurrent and even today are as much contained as solved.

Keywords: Plant disease; Animal disease; Weeds; Pests; Cattle plague; Liver rot; Managerial responses; Opportunity costs; ‘Rat farming’ (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-030-44274-3_11

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-44274-3_11

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