Environmental Constraints on Food Production in New Guinea and the Eastern U.S.

Key Insight

New Guinea and the eastern United States, despite indigenous agricultural development, illustrate how environmental and biological constraints limited the productivity of local food production systems compared to the Fertile Crescent. New Guinea, inhabited for over 40000 years, developed agriculture around 7000 B.C. due to the non-viability of hunting-gathering (lack of large native game, with the cassowary at 100 pounds and kangaroo at 50 pounds being the largest, leading to protein deficiency). Local domesticates included sugarcane, Australimusa bananas, and various roots.

However, New Guinea suffered severe limitations: it domesticated no cereal crops, lacking any of the world's 56 largest-seeded wild grasses, and possessed no domesticable large mammals (pigs, chickens, and dogs arrived from Southeast Asia). This led to severe protein deficiency in highland farmers, whose staple root crops like taro contain barely 1% protein, compared to 8–14% for wheat and 20–25% for pulses. The later introduction of the South American sweet potato, which yields more quickly, grows at higher elevations, and gives higher yields, triggered a population explosion, showing that New Guineans were eager to adopt superior crops.

Similarly, the eastern United States saw independent domestication between 2500–1500 B.C., 6000 years after the Fertile Crescent. Early crops like squash, sunflower, sumpweed, and goosefoot served as minor dietary supplements for 2000 years, due to disadvantages like tiny seeds or irritants, while people still relied heavily on wild foods. The region lacked domesticable pulses, fiber crops, fruit/nut trees (other than wild nuts), and large animals (except dogs). The eventual arrival of the Mexican 'trinity'—corn (around A.D. 900), beans (around A.D. 1100), and squash—revolutionized agriculture, leading to population booms and the displacement of most indigenous crops, confirming that the limitations were biological and environmental, not due to the indigenous peoples' inability to recognize or adopt useful plants.