Preservation Has Been The Hallmark
of Civilization's Advance
There are but two critical elements to sustaining life... nutrition and procreation. Without
the former, there cannot be the latter. From its elementary stage, as humankind has evolved, these basic elements
became fractured. Where people were once in immediate contact with food sources, they became separated.
Thus, in order to sustain life, humans had to develop, through trial and error, processes for preserving
foods. Then, as they developed "taste and preference," they became further separated, seasonally, from foods, since
most have specific harvest periods. Hence, people had to learn about advanced food preservation processes to have certain
foods available during every season.
Nonetheless, one could argue that the initial, and to this day still the BEST form of preservation
remains the keeping of the food "live" until it is time to be harvested or slaughtered and immediately consumed. This is NATURAL
PRESERVATION; for surely from the moment living stops, decaying begins. Unfortunately, in a modern industrial society,
this TIME PROXIMITY is just impossible. Thus, NATURAL PRESERVATION, as defined, is compromised. This is "the cost"
of urban and suburban living.
Observing the long-haul of human existence, one is struck that there have been relatively few processes/methods
developed for the preservation of foods, of botanicals, and now of tissues and organs used in medical transplantation.
We are all too familiar with the Igloo beer cooler holding a human heart!
This is remarkable when one considers
that preservation has been the hallmark of civilization's advance.
There's not one aspect of our lives that does not include a form of preservation.
This holds true for developed nations as well as primitive societies.
