April 7, 2010
Gamamusa fixed his makeup in the bathroom. If it were someone else, he would wear makeup to look younger, but he was doing it for the opposite reason. He intentionally drew lines with a small, black brush to show wrinkles around the mouth. He shaved his hair a little bit with a razor, making it look like he was losing hair, and added artificial skin to his forehead to show wrinkles. "…Now you look a little 40 years old. The rumor that you are handsome was originally made because you look young for a 40 year old."
Gamamusa sighed. It was funny to play the 40-year-old professor on an age similar to the students, perhaps even younger, having born from the '90s. But there was nothing he could do. He did not live legally in this country right now, and he did not need to. His wrinkles stretched as he frowned in the mirror. "It looks older."
The professor came into the classroom. The students had already been waiting for the professor's class, and their eyes lit up. The professor called the attendance book and looked at the students. "… What we are going to learn today is the relationship between food production and climate." The professor now brought out a title that has nothing to do with the curriculum of the class. This regular class was about democracy, but Gamamusa decided to skip the class because he thought it was not worth teaching.
When the professor reinstalled the world map on the blackboard, the students leaned forward wondering what class they would take this time. The professor circulated six regions on the map, where the climate was colored and lines were drawn to indicate altitude. They were the Mexican Plateau, the Andean Plateau, the Ethiopian Plateau, the New Guinea Highlands, the Yunnan Plateau, and the Armenian Plateau. The professor pointed to these regions. "What do these regions have in common?"
Several students raised their hands when the professor heard it. The professor pointed at a female student's hand. She was a student who had emphasized the growth of the population in poor areas regarding human expandability in the previous class. Gamamusa looked at him. "… You're Goyeun, right? What do these areas have in common?" GoYeun put her hands down. "They are high plateaus, alpine regions," the professor nodded. "You are right. And there is another thing in common. These are the places where 'independent farming' began."
The professor wrote the words 'climate diversity and consistency' on the blackboard. "As you know, the Mexican and Andean highlands were the first places where agriculture began in America. This was discovered because the Native Americans' history was so short that corn and potatoes could not spread to the surrounding plains until the Spanish conquerors arrived. Similarly, academia has proven that agriculture began independently on the island of New Guinea before Indonesia. In the case of New Guinea, it was confirmed that the highlands were blocked by a plain made of wilderness rainforest and could not spread outside."
After clearing his throat for a moment, the professor explained, "In the case of the Old Continent, there has been no verification. Some African scholars believe that agriculture originated independently in West Africa. The hypothesis that rice farming or rice farming comes from the plains of the Yangtze River, the Euphrates River, and the desert plains of the Tigris River, not from the plateau, is almost certain in the academic world. It's been too long since it's hard to confirm. But the ruins of Chatalhoeweke, G?bekli Tepe, and Jericho let us know that ancient human civilization passed from the Armenian highlands to the Palestinian highlands via the Turkish highlands."
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The professor paid attention to the world map. "The lower the mountain and plateau, the warmer it gets, the colder it gets, the higher it gets, and the humidity varies with height, so the climate varies greatly. Therefore, crops for mass production containing carbohydrates that can be consumed by humans come from the highlands of the plateau, and crops improved with these various varieties can move to the cold and warm south. The crops of the Armenian Plateau, which were the first agricultural regions, spread southward and spread to Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus rivers at the same latitudes, but they also traveled through the mountains of Iran, through cold Central Asia, and into the Yellow River in North China, where the latitudes were completely different."
The professor took a rest for a moment, taking a sip of water. The students looked at the clock and were nervous that the class would end soon. "The first agriculture began on the plateau, but we need a consistent climate to mass-produce crops. So it is natural for the climate to shift horizontally to the same latitudes as the plains. While Armenian wheat reached China beyond the Central Asian desert, Egyptian wheat did not reach Ethiopia beyond the Sahara desert in the south. This is a very important issue."
The professor brought a globe. The students began to think why it was a globe in class. "You know, the Earth is a sphere. So while the surface areas in the north and south are small, those near the equator increase." The Earth's latitude is shorter toward the north and south and longer toward the equator. The professor wrote on the blackboard, 'North and South: Land and Sea Area <; Equator: Land and Sea Area >.'
"The land and sea areas of the north and south regions are small, and the equatorial region is large in land and sea areas. In fact, it doesn't matter if the land area is large. No matter how large the land is, humans and plants can spread out enough. What matters is the area of the sea." He led the way between Brazil and West Africa, and between the ends of Brazil and Peru. "The road from Peru to Brazil is longer than the shortest route to Brazil and Africa. From the Age of Discovery, it was easier to get from Africa to Brazil," he smiled weakly. "But before that, it was easier to get from Peru to the end of Brazil. Because the sea requires ships to cross."
He drew horizontal lines on the map. Some crossed the sea and some crossed the ground. "… you'll see, the Arctic region is easy to cross. Greenland is connected to North America and Siberia. In the south, Africa, South America, and Australia are connected by the Antarctic so that they can theoretically cross the country in the shortest distance. This led to one important tragedy."
He began to circle the map. "Crops have not been easy to spread in the tropics where the sea is clogged up. Rice has rarely spread to southern East Asia and northern India, yams and cassava in Africa, and corn, which is easy to grow in subtropics, is the staple food in South America and is no longer eaten. If the tropics of these three continents were connected to the land, food would have been easy to spread. On the other hand, wheat and barley from Armenia reached North America through China and Europe, and corn, imported from Mexico and adapted to a Mediterranean climate, spread to the United States and northern China."
He connected India and China. "Modern China and India are both continental countries with a population of 1.4 billion, but India has a much lower food self-sufficiency rate and GDP than China. Similarly, Japan and the Philippines, island countries with a population of 100 million, are fundamentally different. The Philippines lacked rice when it developed farmland to foster its industry, but Japan moved its main rice production base far from Kanto to Hokkaido in order to develop Kanto."
Ko Ye-eun raised her hand. "Then, Professor, did the areas near the equator never live to be?" he shook his head. "As I said before, it was okay until the West dumped food all over the world. India was on a par with China. However, India did not benefit when corn reached China and increased food." The professor erased the chalkboard and looked back at the students. "Today's class ends here. I have to go to another school now, too, so I have to say goodbye."
