Was the Shift to Farming Forced Upon Our Ancestors?
Our distant forebears who switched from hunter-gatherers to farmers did not do so as a noble sacrifice for future generations, because they knew it would benefit descendants thousands of years in the future. They did not voluntarily give up the easy hunter-gatherer life and take up back breaking farm work because it meant distant offspring would someday land on the moon or surf the internet on smart phones. Soon after some Middle Eastern mountain bands took the first steps towards animal husbandry with the domestication of sheep and goats, hard times reduced some hunter-gatherers to eating grass. Specifically, wild wheat and barley.
Such grass species were probably initially viewed as particularly good grazing for the newly domesticated flocks. Then at some point, some people experimented with wild grass recipes. Some trial and error followed, that probably involved boiling wild wheat and barley entire. It was eventually discovered that only the seeds were edible, while the stems were best left to the sheep and goats. More experimentation likely involved boiled wheat and barley seeds – an improvement over boiled stems. Yet more experimentation, in which the grains were ground, mixed, and baked, produced a recipe for bread.
