When and where did the change from food foraging to food production begin?

2. Why did the change take place? 3. What were the consequences of the change to food production? When and where did the change from food foraging to food production begin? In the Paleolithic, people lived by hunting and gathering. But around 12,000 years ago, people began to interact differently with the natural environment. Instead of gathering wild plants, people began to deliberately plant grasses, tubers, and other plants. This was NOT a sudden transition - people did not wake up suddenly one day and decide to do agriculture, cease hunting and gathering, and settled down to plant fields. Instead, it was a gradual process of experimentation with plants and planting that ultimately came to replace the old hunting and gathering lifeway with one dependent on domesticated plants and animals. Although this process was repeated across the world, with some seven places where the idea of food production was independently invented, the one we know best is Southwest Asia (the middle east). ...  more