The eighteenth century, which was to conclude with the American and French Revolutions, was also the Age of Enlightenment. The conviction was growing that scientific progress was intended to enable humans to control the world around us: Had we not learned to control thunderbolts, thanks to the lightning rod? This was the era of Linnaeus, Buffon, and Diderot, and we began cataloguing nature's riches and seeking to employ them in a more rational way.
This approach was seen particularly in the areas of agriculture and animal husbandry. Improved productivity was the order of the day. Landowners organized and agricultural societies and academies were founded, where questions of farming were discussed and where news and information were exchanged and documents published. In England, the enclosure policy was broadly implemented, evicting small-scale farmers to the benefit of big landowners and providing the latter with the resources for long-term investment. In the sphere of animal husbandry, major efforts were made to improve fe ... read full excerpt from How the Cows Turned Mad ebook
