Agricultural Ecosystem

The first exhibit in the Laboratory of Agricultural History is a one cubic metre model of a plot of land, featuring ears of wheat and a stuffed cock, representing an environment essential to humanity: an agricultural ecosystem. What does this mean? 

The agricultural ecosystem is a heavily anthropized environment where a synergy of climate, terrain, plants, animals and microorganisms provide human beings with the sustenance necessary for survival. There are an almost infinite variety of agricultural ecosystems around the globe: from the semi-natural to the totally artificial and industrialised. The history of agriculture can be traced worldwide through the interaction between agriculture and the environment and agricultural development over millennia.