Farming began about 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent
The shift from foraging to farming - one of the great turning points in human history - started with wild grains in the Middle East.
For most of human existence, people fed themselves by hunting and gathering. Then, beginning roughly 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, communities in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East began deliberately planting and harvesting wild grasses - the start of agriculture, often called the Neolithic Revolution.
The first domesticated crops were cereals and pulses: emmer and einkorn wheat, barley, lentils, peas and chickpeas - the so-called “founder crops.” Over generations, farmers unconsciously selected plants with bigger seeds and tougher stalks that held their grain, slowly reshaping wild plants into crops.
The consequences were vast. A reliable food supply let people settle in one place, store surplus, and support far larger populations - which in turn made possible villages, cities, writing and states.
Agriculture arose independently several times around the world, but the Fertile Crescent is the earliest known.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
