2. The Agricultural Revolution

2.1 History’s Biggest Fraud

Word List: WordInterpretationfign.无花果inseminatevt.使受精wheatn.小麦barleyn.大麦locustn.蝗虫swarmn.蜂群，一群人wormn.蠕虫cashew nuts腰果domesticatevt.驯服maizen.玉米（US. corn）milletn.小米cuisinen.菜肴pean.豌豆gourdn.葫芦sorghumn.高粱trufflen.松露,块菌elusivea.难以捉摸的beastn.野兽ferociousa.凶猛的decipherv.破译gruelinga.折磨人的spartana.清苦的pampereda.饮食奢侈的，娇惯的culpritsn.犯人ubiiquitousa.无所不在的blightn.疫病（植物）from dawn to dusk= from sunrise to sunset For 2.5 million years humans fed themselves by gathering plants and hunting animals that lived without their intervention.Why do anything else when your lifestyle feeds you amply and supports a rich world of social structures, religious beliefs, and political dynamics?All this changed about 10,000 years ago, when Sapiens began to devote almost all their time and effort to manipulating the lives of a few animal and plant species.The transition to agriculture began around 9500-8500 BC in the hill country of southeastern Turkey, western Iran, and the Levant. It began slowly and in a restricted geographical area.Even today, with all our advanced technologies, more than 90 percent of the calories that feed humanity come from the handful of plants that our ancestors domesticated between 9500 and 3500 BC — wheat, rice, maize, potatoed, millet, and barley.Today, scholars agree that agriculture sprang up in other parts of the world not by the action of Middle Eastern farmers exporting their revolution but entirely independently.

The Agricultural Revolution certainly enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but the extra food did not translate into a better diet or more leisure.The Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud. The culprits were a handful of plant species, including wheat, rice and potatoes. These plants domesticated Homo sapiens, rather than vice versa. (they got us a worse diet )Ten thousand years ago wheat was just a wild grass, one of many, confined to a small range in the Middle East. Suddenly, within just a few short millennia, it was growing all over the world.