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Location represents one of the most important proximate factors that encourage or resist the rise and spread of food production. As Jared Diamond expresses in Guns, Germs, and Steel, “We tend to seek easy, single-factor explanations of success. For the most important things, though, success actually requires avoiding many separate possible causes of failure” (157). Although having an excellent location may seem like one factor that can help a society, it is actually a deterrent of multiple problems that lead to a society not developing food production independently. But, what does a good location look like, in terms of developing food production? Diamond explains that having a variety of elevations in your land will guarantee many types of environments, which leads to a diversity in crops (140). Societies in prehistory were either very lucky or unlucky when it came to location. The people living in these places did not choose the benefits they would receive from where they lived. But the people who did have good locations used it to their advantage.

Few places had the capabilities to start food production independently. The Fertile Crescent was one of these few, because of advantages like, “it lies within a zone of so-called Mediterranean climate, a climate characterized by mild, wet winters and long, hot, dry summers” (136). This climate allowed for the perfect growing season. Also, the Fertile Crescent had hermaphroditic plants, which pollinated themselves and a great quantity of edible plants like this (136-137). These advantages proved as a ways to easily begin food production. The abundance of food was able to provide enough calories to sustain life. Food production also lead to sedentary living, which allowed a better lifestyle for families, encouraging food production as a more suitable way of existence. All of these assets explain how places were able to start food production, but this spread throughout the world in a different way.

Location is so important to the spread of food production, because the only way for innovations to expand quickly is through a latitudinal axis. Places that are horizontal of each other, have the same roughly the same day lengths and types of seasons (183). Therefore, these places would be able to share the same types of crops. As history has exemplified, information is also passed quicker this way, as opposed to places that are vertical of each other. Diamond says, “All those other areas became food producing as a result of the spread of crops, livestock, and knowledge of how to grow them and, in some cases, as a result of migrations of farmers and herders themselves” (177). This spread was made possible by the vertical relationship. This explains why Eurasia, which is the continent with the largest latitude axis, was able to gain so much, so fast. Not only was food production easily spread, but also many other advantages that led to the ability to become a successful and advanced society. Although location is not the only reason that food production rose and spread, it is an essential contributory element of this expansion.

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Location is the most important contributory element that guarantees the rise and spread of domesticates enabling food production. As Jared Diamond explains in, Guns, Germs, and Steel, location is a main cause of proficient food production. The reason why the location of the Fertile Crescent domesticated faster east to west was because the climates were so alike. The 8,000-mile distance from the Atlantic coast of Ireland to the Pacific coast of Japan is the largest land expansion of Eurasia on Earth (Diamond, 185). So how could the crops possibly make that 8,000-mile journey? Diamond explains how the Fertile Crescent’s elevations are an advantage:  “Its range of elevations, from the lowest spot on Earth (the Dead Sea) to mountains of 18,000 feet (near Teheran), ensures a corresponding variety of environments, hence a high diversity of the wild plants serving as potential ancestors of crops.” (140). The Fertile Crescent has the range of altitudes with staggered harvest seasons, so there is always a crop for each season because of the diverse and compromising altitudes. This further proves that location is inevitably the most important factor in food production.

Location determines what crops can grow where. Thus location is vital for any food production. For instance, if a crop needs adequate water to flourish, you are not going to try and grow it in the desert. The Mediterranean Climate was more beneficial than other areas in prehistory. Diamond contemplates the idea that the reason why food production might not have evolved in some areas was perhaps the lack of suitable wild plants in that particular area, and not the people. There are 200,000 species of wild flowering plants, which have furnished almost all of our crops. So there must be a great amount of crops to thrive in all the parts of the world. (Diamond, 131-132). So why did the Fertile Crescent succeed while the other parts of the world struggled? As Diamond points out, “A mere dozen species account for over 80 percent of the modern world’s annual tonnage of all crops” (132). Cereal crops are vital and account for more than half the calories consumed by the world’s human populations. Cereal crops like wheat and pulses blossomed in the Fertile Crescent and these types of crops are high in protein and carbohydrates which equal calories. Calories equal creation that is strong. Location determines the fate of a society.

As discussed in class, distinctive geography rather than distinctive human intellect creates a head start to anything. “The peoples of areas with a head start on food production thereby gained a head start on the path leading toward guns, germs, and steel” (103). Diamond explains that a few areas around the world developed food production independently at differing times. Food production was not invented or adopted, it evolved. The peoples in that area did not choose which crops to grow or to become hunter-gatherers or farmers. Location ultimately chose the life for them (Diamond, 105-107). Food Production is the most valuable piece of technology we have; without it, we cannot survive. Food production in prehistory-great location in prehistory, establishes a strong and stable society.

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In the first paragraph of Hemispheres Colliding, Jared Diamond asks, “… why did Europeans reach and conquer the lands of Native Americans, instead of vice versa?
• why did Europeans have such an advantage over the Native Americans?
o collision between Old World (mostly represented by Native America) and New World countries (mostly represented by Europe/Eurasia) is marked by several different distinctions:
 * food production (society or country has little food production room for a few people)
• amount of big domesticable animals
• Eurasia: 13 species
o dogs, cows, pigs, horses, and more to use as transportation
• Americas: 1 specie ( o Llama- No horses, no cows, no big animals that could do dirty work

Five Major Disadvantages That the Native Americans Had:
1. they depended on protein-poor corn, while Eurasia had a variety of protein-rich food sources
2. they hand planted individual seeds, while Eurasia had broadcast sowing
3. they tilled by hand, while Eurasia used animals to plow
4. Native Americans lacked animal manure to fertilize
5. Natives lacked human muscle power
^slowed food production for the Old World^
(and sped it up for the New World, allowing for germs, technology, political organization, and writing)

Eurasia Advantages:
1. Germs
o killed many humans and animal species- especially for the Natives (since they had no knowledge to prevent disease
- With even less animals than they already had, and less man power, the Natives found it very hard to get from point A to point B in a short amount of time)
2.  Population
oEurasia- more centralized government, competing societies Eurasia to acquire important technology long before the Americas

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The history of East Asia

China was the initial area of food production in East Asia. Some research suggests that there may have been more than one initial site of food production in China prior to its unification. North China and South China differ greatly in their environments. The Northern part of China has an arid and cool climate. In contrast, the South of China is humid and warm. Because Chinese crops favored the cool conditions in the north, most crops diffused north to south throughout China. The prevalence of rivers in northern China enabled irrigation to be employed and made the facilitation of food production easier. For this reason only a limited number of crops diffused from South China to North China.

Interestingly, already by 221 B.C., China was unified politically and had only a single writing system. Technologically superior peoples in Northern China later advanced upon the technologically inferior peoples in Southern China, and forced them to adopt their guns, germs, and steel. Consequently, China became unified and monolithic. China’s inventions later diffused into adjacent areas, resulting from the major east-west axis of Eurasia. These products included paper, the compass, the wheelbarrow, and gunpowder. China’s major influence can still be observed in the nearby countries of Japan and Korea today. 

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Food production and domesticables has shown a direct cause to all civilization. But what, we ask, caused this plant and animal domestication? Throughout chapters 4 through 10 of Jared Diamonds Guns Germs and Steel; The Fates of Human Societies, he gives several reasons for this domestication. These various reasons include east/west axis and lack of food, but in my opinion the most important of all these proximate causes is Location. Throughout the ancient, unwritten history of our world it is apparent that location plays a vital role in the success of our continents. While places such as Africa and New Guinea had a several thousand year head start, it is places such as North America and Eurasia that have the majority of the Domesticables. Why? The answer is simple. Location. However, just to clarify, even the best location cannot domesticate the undomesticable. According to Diamond the requir,ents for a domesticable mammal are that they must be at least and preferably predominantly a herbivore. Right of the bat it is obvious that location is key, seeing as the continent with the majority of domesticates is Eurasia. Eurasia is a great location for domestication becasue “Eurasia is the world’s largest landmass, and it’s also very diverse ecologically.” (162) It is obvious from this statement that if you’re looking for domestication, the Fertile Crescent is the place to be.

The Fertile Crescent were gifted with, well . . . fertile lands and a termperate climate that made the switch from Hunter-Gatherer to Farmer swifter and less painful. They then learned how to obtain more edible calories “by selecting and growing those few species of plants and animals that we can eat, so that they constitute 90 percent instead of 0.1 percent of biomass on an acre of land” (88) faster than those countries with harsher climates. Therefore, they were able to feed and care for more people and domesticables than they had in their previous Hunter-Gatherer Stage (88). Now you might be wondering where this marvelous place might be. Well the Fertile Crescent makes up much of what is known today as the Middle East. While it might not seem quite as fertile nowadays, in prehistory it was a perfect place for domesticables. It’s land was just fertile enough to grow many kinds of plants and it’s climate was perfect for the agriculatural needs of it’s farmers. It seemed as the Fertile Crescent was the perfect location, and seeing how vital location was, it was the place to be.

Unfortunetly, as I mentioned before, there are some restrictions on what can and what cannot be domesticated. Like I said before it must be a terreststrial mammal that is (on average) over 100 pounds and be predominently a herbivore. But if those are the only conditions, then why are there not more domesticated species? The answer is the Anna Kareina Principle, “Happy families are all alike;every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."(157) Even though the Principle is relating to family happiness, it is also true when it comes to domesticables. All eligable species for domestication are elligable in the same way; All species unelligable for domestication are each undomesticable in their own way. Whether it be that the animal is skittish or tempermental, there are several reasons an animal can’t be domesticated. However, with a good location, all elligable domesticates can be domesticated. While the other causes are important it is clear that location is key to an advanced society. People of the fertile crescent domesticated more plants and animals faster (157) due to their excellent, fertile location. Which just goes to show that if you wish to domesticate, you need to relocate. I think that made my point.   

Africa has a high diversity of people and language because of their diversity in geography and a long prehistory. The North African people resemble whites in the Middle East and Europe. They speak mostly Afro-Asiatic languages. Now part of Central Africa, Pygmies were once widespread. However, they were engulfed by Bantu farmers and languages were lost. Like the Pygmies, the Khoisan was also widespread along with their languages. Now, however, they have been confined to desert areas in which the Bantu couldn’t farm. Blacks speaking Austronesian languages are blended with Indonesians in Madagascar.

Blacks occupy most of the South Sahara and sub-Saharan Africa. Their language revolves mainly around non-Bantu and Bantu versions of the Niger-Congo languages. During 3000 BC to 500 AD, Bantu farmers dominated as they spread because of superior plant and animal domestication. They extended their range to Natal on the East coast and to the Fish River. In 1652, white colonists faced poorly defended Khoisan in South Africa because the Bantu were farther away. They colonists continued expanding and colonization succeeded due to better food production and weapons.

Location is obviously the most important contributory element that guarantees the rise and spread of food production. As it is in many aspects of life, location was crucial for a civilization to gain food production. In comparison, when an entrepreneur contemplates opening a new business, he must first choose a location in which there is a demand for his product or service. He must research the demographics and competition in that given area. If everything fits what the entrepreneur is looking for, he will open his desired business and watch it thrive. Unfortunately for ancient peoples, they were not able to choose the area where their people would be located. However, if they were looking to have the wet climate, the fertile soil, and the multitude of crops and animals that allowed for the independent rise of food production, they most certainly would have chosen 1 of 5 areas. The areas where food production arose independently, with the domestication of the crops and animals native to that specific area, are the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes of South America, and the eastern United States (Diamond 98). But what exactly about the location of these areas made them able to cultivate plants and animals? Though these areas acquired food production independently, they are not without their inconsistencies. Diamonds questions, “Among those regions where food production did spring up independently, why did the times at which it appeared vary so greatly?” (94) I intend to explore how location provided the natural resources and fertile land that allowed for food production.

Location determines the natural resources and indigenous plants and animals that the inhabitants of that area will eventually inherit. “Southwest Asia (also known as the Fertile Crescent) has the earliest definite dates for both plant domestication and animal domestication.” (99) Thus, the Fertile Crescent domesticated its local plants and animals earliest in human history. It undoubtedly had received, due to its location, Multitude of Edible Plants and a generous gift of easily domesticable animals. The Fertile Crescent domesticated wheat, peas, olives, sheep, and goats by 8500 B.C., the earliest recorded in history (100). Because it possessed so many key plants and animals, the people of the Fertile Crescent were able to pick and choose which plants were able to be domesticated the best. On the other hand, the people of Ethiopia were given very little to grow and domesticate. Perhaps Ethiopia’s Harsh and Dry Climate contributed to its lack of edible plants and animals. Had Ethiopia received a wetter climate with more fertile soil, its people could have had a variety of plants to domesticate. The only plants independently domesticated in Ethiopia were coffee and teff, and it had no domesticated animals (100). It is still disputed whether Ethiopians even domesticated coffee independently. “It is not yet known whether Ethiopians were cultivating these local plants before or only after the arrival of the Southwest Asian package,” Diamond says (101). Not only were many areas given the gift of a large amount of plants and animals, but its people were smart enough to make domestication work.

With the gift of plants and animals to domesticate, areas had to be able to spread its domesticated food for the benefit of the world. Its ability to spread food production depended on its location. If the area had a lond East-West axis, it had a similar climate throughout the area, and it was then able to move food production through the entire land mass. If the area had a short East-West axis, it had a limited amount of land with a similar climate. The Fertile Crescent was located on the Eurasian land mass, which had a considerably long East-West axis. New Guinea had very few domesticated plants and no domesticated animals (100). This was due to the fact that other countries could not spread their domesticated foods to New Guinea because it was an island. Also, Africa had a difficult time spreading food production. “Contrast the ease of East-West diffusion in Eurasia with the difficulties of diffusion along Africa’s North-South axis,” Diamond challenges the reader (186). Of course, the climate differences that come with a primarily North-South axis make it nearly impossible to adapt plants and animals. Upon obtaining desirable land in a desirable location, one will find that even the most primitive cultures could have domesticated food. But give an advanced society land in a poor location, and they will have very little success in cultivating food.

The histories of Australia and New Guinea

Chapter 15 uses the development of Australia and New Guinea as an experiment in human evolution.  Historical evidence suggests that during the Pleistocene times, connected New Guinea and Australia were both populated by people from Asia, thus making the peoples of the two islands closely related.  Australia and New Guinea were then isolated from Asia, and probably from each other.

So why did New Guinea develop, while Australia did not?  New Guinea domesticated certain foods independently.  This food production allowed them to develop slightly, while the diverse and segmented climate of the mountainous region kept technology from spreading.  Meanwhile, the dry and domesticable-less Australia was unable to develop food production and remained hunter-gatherers, unable to develop tools and technology.  Australia remained isolated from Asia by water and New Guinea by the flow of information over many islands.

Finally, Europeans were able to make Australia so productive because they removed the isolation.  Australia was unable to adopt goods from the surrounding landmasses because Australia’s climate is drastically different from New Guinea’s and Indonesia’s.  Europeans brought goods from all over the world to Australia’s fertile regions.  It was not that the Australians were resistance to new technology; they simply did not have the environment or resources to develop.

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Anyone who has ever read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel knows the most important contributory element that guarantees the rise and spread of domesticables enabling food production is writing.  Writing stems from the ultimate factor of the east/west axis where location plays a key role. ( Diamond 87) The east/west axis of society allows it to incorporate and domesticate a large number of plants and animals that survive und3er the same conditions.  With this incorporation of food, there comes a need for food production, but with this food comes germs and epidemics because of the lack of immunity to these wild species.  “…the diseases evolved from germs of the domesticated animals…” (87)

What does this have to do with writing?

When disease are developed and seen, they can be documented and therefore prevented and/or treated.  Writing allows societies to write down details about these diseases (most commonly the symptoms) and prevent people from dieing off from these new diseases.  Writing also allows for small groups or villages to develop their societies from bands and tribes to chiefdoms, or states. (268-269) “As population densities rose, food production became increasingly favored because it provided the increased food outputs needed to feed all those people.” (111) With this food input and output, it became extremely necessary for food storage.

Stemming from the chart on pg. 87 of Mr. Diamond’s novel, he infers that food storage virtually lead right into the necessity for writing. (87) He infers that calories = creation and therefore creation means writing.  Writing allowed for so many things to happen for a society.  It gave them the chance to document history, store their food and know their inventory, begin on the path to political organization and law, etc. “Continental differences in axis orientation affected the diffusion not only of food production but also of other technologies and inventions.” (190) Although this is true, writing allowed for the differences in axis orientation to be compromised through its many assets. 

Latitude of location is the most important element contributing to the rise and spread of food production. According to Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, favorable latitude provided significant advantages for a society. For instance, Eurasia is the first land mass to gain a starter package of domesticated agriculture and then proceed to spread it extensively throughout the continent. However, Eurasia did not become the dominating agricultural force because of skilled farmers. The enormous east-wet axis and the particular latitude of Eurasia gave it an overwhelming advantage in the agriculture race (191). As Diamond states, “Localities distributed east and west of each other at the same latitude share exactly the same day length and seasonal variations.” Similar latitudes also share local disease, climate, and habitats (183). By allowing for a similar environment at different locations, latitude made the spread of agriculture inevitable.

Crops are biologically inclined to grow at certain climates. The similarity of climate along the same latitude allows domesticated crops to develop at a number of locations that could be thousands of miles apart. The ease of replanting along the same line of latitude encouraged the spread of agriculture in Eurasia, where there is a long east-west axis. However, the axis of the American continents is largely North-South, which allows little if any spread of domesticated crops (177). North American crops cannot spread throughout the North-South axis, because of the differences in temperature, rainfall, and overall climate. Diamond claims “… the failure of both farming and herding to reach Native American California from the U.S. Southwest” is the difficulty of farming in an area with a difficult North-South axis (178). The East-West axis gave Eurasia the advantage of crop replanted, but the North-South axis in the Americas created hardship for replanting farmers.

The greater ease of crop diffusion in Eurasia permitted faster development of sedentary, stratified societies. As Diamond stated, “Continental differences in axis orientation affected the diffusion not only of food production but also of other technologies and inventions.” The spread of agriculture and farming was followed by the spread of world-altering inventions such as the wheel and the alphabet (190). The low spread of agriculture in the Americas; caused by the North-South axis, lead to low spread of inventions. Consequently, the Americas experienced no growth or spread of technology, while Eurasia enjoyed the benefits of agricultural and technological growth. The latitude and general orientation of the axes dictated the fate of that region (191). With a favorable East-West axis, a region would have an advantage in gaining and spreading technology. In the Americas, the failure to domesticate and spread crops is the fault of the latitude, not the people. Latitude is the most important factor for discovering the successful rise and spread of agriculture.

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Today I was sitting in the cafeteria, eating my $2.20 lunch, and thinking for all that money, there isn’t enough food. Jared Diamond feels my pain, hence he dedicated six chapters of his book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, to discovering the causes of the rise and spread of food production. As he stated, “The question continues to be debated by archaeologists and anthropologists…five main contributing factors can still be identified; the controversies revolve mainly around their relative importance” (110). Diamond is suggesting that there are five main factors contributing to the rise and spread of food production. He goes onto explain that these factors include a decrease in wild foods, an increase in domesticable plants, the development of new technology, an increase in population density, and the spread of food production from areas where it already existed. “All these considerations make it clear that we should not suppose that the decision to adopt farming was made in a vacuum, as if the people had previously no means to feed themselves” (109). In saying this, Diamond is suggesting that we cannot assume food production was created all at once, because people had access to a sufficient amount of food in all years prior to the development of food production. Instead, there had to be other causes, or proximate factors, such as those listed above, that resulted in food production. Still, knowing these factors, the controversy remains over which factor has the greatest importance.

So back to the cafeteria. I was in lunch, and I was thinking about how I had finished eating, yet was still hungry, because I like to eat a lot, and our school lunches really don’t provide enough food. Yet I still needed to buy a drink, and couldn’t stand the thought of paying more than $2.95 for food I didn’t really like. What I am getting at is that like myself, hunter-gatherers did not have a sufficient amount of available food. My alternative to this problem was to buy only a drink and eat some leftover food from the kids at my table. In the same sense, the alternative of hunter-gatherers was the development of food production. “One factor is the decline in the availability of wild foods. The lifestyle of hunter-gatherers has become less increasingly less rewarding over the past 13,000 years, as resources on which they depended (especially animal resources) have become less abundant or even disappeared”(110). With this statement, Diamond is supporting the idea that a lack of available food resulted of in food production. He also says that, “Only after the first Polynesian settlers had exterminated moas and decimated seal populations on New Zealand…did they intensify their food production” (110). Here Diamond is giving specific examples that prove how the decline in available food led to food production.

The decline in availability of food did not happen all at once. As stated by Diamond, “As population densities rose, food production became increasingly favored because it provided the increased food outputs needed to feed all those people”(111). The overall population on our planet began to increase, in some areas faster than others, therefore less wild food was available to feed the greater numbers. “A gradual rise in population densities impelled people to obtain more food…once people began to produce food and become sedentary, they could shorten the birth spacing and produce still more people, requiring still more food” (111). Diamond takes his thoughts a step farther to explain. A greater population density is one of the factors that led to the decrease of wild foods. It too is a proximate cause. The decrease in available foods made the quest for a different source of food necessary. As Diamond state, it “impelled people to obtain more food,” and this is how food production came to be. Overall, I think that the decrease in wild foods has the greatest impact of the proximate causes. It is the main event that stimulated people to find another food source. The development of food production may not have been a conscious decision, but it was created as a result of a need, the need for food. So the same way I decided to find an alternate supply of food during lunch, the hunter-gatherers found another source of food when they were hungry. People get hungry and like to eat; they also need food to survive. When there’s a will, there’s a way, and the absence of food gave people a strong enough will to develop food production.

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After reading Jared Diamonds book Guns, Germs, and Steel I could find a large amount of factors that causes food production. For example; access to domesticable plants and animals, proper soil, the need for more food with population growth, and growing seasons are all different factors that exist, but they all fall under the main category of location.(191) “…some regions proved much more suitable than others for the origins of food production, the ease of its spread was also varied greatly around the world.” (177).Without proper location you could not possibly have all of these things. Location is the one most important attribute that will guarantee the rise and spread of domesticables that therefore enables food production. Different locations allow for different chances at enabling food production. The Fertile Crescent and China both had useful and domesticable plant and animal species. These two locations were the first and most successful in food production.

Only certain things can live in certain locations. It would be impossible for a cow to survive in the tundra, what I’m getting at is the success of the farming and herding tribe depends on the location. Supported by Diamond, “Each plant population becomes genetically programmed, through natural selection, to respond appropriately to signals of the season regime under which it evolved…Animals too are adapted to latitude-related features of climate.” (184). The Eurasia had fourteen herbivorous domesticable animals roaming around and had successfully domesticated thirteen. Sub-Saharan Africa had plenty of domesticable animals, fifty one to be exact and they killed them because they were hunter gatherers. (162) Eurasia was just luckier location wise; they had the means of food production right in front of them. To get from domestication of plants and animals to food production you have to think of results. The result of domesticating plants is growing more than what naturally grows, therefore supporting more people, therefore having a population growth, therefore becoming more significant, and developing writing and language. The result of domesticating animals is breeding more, using them to develop technology or tools, eating more and having more left over and then it follows the same pattern that the plant domestication results had.

The east-west axis plays a huge role in the food production process. When a continent has a large east-west axis that means about everyone has about the same climate and growing seasons. When a continent has a large north south axis that means there is a huge range of different climates, growing seasons and even environments. (185) As said by Diamond, “Localities distributed east and west of each other at the same latitude share exactly the same day length and its seasonal variations.” (183).The similarities in the environment allow crops to spread, and be grown in more than one area at a time. It helps tribes become sedentary after observing farmers and herders. It allows them to replicate exactly and develop food production of their own. This proceeds to spread across the entire continent because of its east-west axis and the relevance of good location.

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Anyone who has read Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, would be able to clearly see that the most immediate casue of spread of food production would have to be location. he sees mankind’s developmental trajectory in any region of the Earth as determined by the number and kind of domesticable plants and animals the region contained, and its barriers to travel. In particular, the unique advantages in all three respects of the famed “Fertile Crescent” after the last Ice Age 13,000 years ago was the decisive accident of history.To take farming first, the area of Southwest Asia around the Tigris-Euphrates valley, was reportedly rich in the right wild varieties of wheat and barley. One trait that especially suits a grass species for domestication is the heaviness of its seed—the part that contains the nutrients—and 32 of the world’s 56 heaviest-seeded grass plants are native to Southwest Asia. Only four of these grasses are found in Sub-Saharan Africa and eleven in all of the Americas.The shift from hunting-gathering to farming, Prof. Diamond argues (surely correctly), was not the inspiration of a lone genius, but was incremental and largely unplanned. Hunter-gatherers first took note of especially desirable plants, then began to return to the most vigorous stands of those plants, then settled permanently near those stands, then began consciously to tend them, and then consciously to sow future crops.More efficient than hunting or gathering, farming yielded food surpluses that allowed sharp increases in population density, which in turn supported specialized non-farming classes of scribes, intellectuals, soldiers, and, eventually, government bureaucrats. Farm-supported societies tended toward greater complexity, the production of new ideas and inventions, and military domination of their neighbors. Diamond argues specifically that all this happened in the Fertile Crescent long before it happened elsewhere in great part because of the accident mentioned before—the presence of so many domesticable plants. This, rather than any inherent superiority of its inhabitants, led to its becoming the “cradle of civilization.” Other parts of the world never had a chance. Either they had no suitable plants at all, or had so few, and began farming so late, that they were overwhelmed by the descendants of those southwest Asians who had begun to urbanize by 8,500 B.C.
According to Diamond’s reckoning, there are only 148 species of large, wild creatures that can be tamed (and of these only 14 species have made it to the farm). In the plant realm, only several hundred of 200,000 species can yield good protein. The ancestors of these mammals and plants — which include pigs, barley, and rice — just happened to be in the Fertile Crescent and China. Moreover, only the Eurasian continent has an east-west axis allowing diffusion of plants, animals, and people across similar, somewhat Mediterranean-style climate and terrain. The north-south axis of Africa and America inhibited diffusion due to severe changes in climate. For example, the tropical jungle of central America effectively stopped the southward migration of domestic corn from Mexico and the northward migration of the domestic llama from Peru. Five thousand years after llamas had been domesticated in the Andes, the Maya, Aztecs, and all the other native societies of Mexico remained without pack animals. Similarly, the Saharan desert and tropical rainforests of Africa impeded the southward spread of technology from the Fertile Crescent of the Middle-East.
Thus, agriculturally wealthy Eurasians had a long head start in developing a surplus population with a division of labor that enabled the tools of civilization to arise. Agricultural settlements led small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers to coalesce into village-based tribes. These grew into chiefdoms comprising thousands of people from many villages. Chiefdoms led conflict-mediating laws to be codified. Ruling classes and elites emerged to mobilize citizens and their resources to wage war, build public works, and increase political power. Finally, the state arose and with it the large populations and technological developments including political organizations that produced fleets of soldiers engaging in transoceanic conquest. This then brings me back to my opening statement of the importance of location because witthout the propper location, nations were not able to evolve.Before agriculture it seems that the impetus for evolution was external or environmental. Agriculture itself undoubtedly arose in some connection with global environmental changes. But since agriculture it seemed that humans have created evolution themselves, their actions destroying species and causing adaptations. Perhaps most importantly the civilizations that have arisen due to the advent of agriculture are now altering the global climate. Maybe we have come full circle and since we have taken evolution into our own hands, we will be our own destroyers.

Societies in the beginning of human history mainly practiced a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Dictionary.com provides the definition of a hunter-gatherer as “a member of a group of people who subsist by hunting, fishing, or foraging in the wild.” Eventually, many of these nomadic hunter-gatherer bands made a shift to a sedentary farmer-herder type lifestyle. Although a farmer-herder lifestyle obviously seems more beneficial, looking at it now, many times farmer-herders had a tougher time surviving than hunter-gatherers. In other words, the advantages were not always obvious. So, what caused humans to shift from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to this farmer-herder lifestyle? Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, And Steel, answers this question with multiple reasons. As Diamond states, “the first farmers on each continent could not have chosen farming consciously, because there were no other nearby farmers for them to observe.” (108) Diamond’s reasons for this sub-conscious shift are comprised of several proximate factors. These factors include the availability of wild foods, the increase of domesticable wild foods, development of technologies, and an increase in human population (110-111). Of these four proximate factors, the single most important aspect in the development of food production is the availability of domesticable wild foods.

In order to survive, humans need enough food so that the body can sustain itself and reproduce. Possessing the right domesticable wild foods allowed societies to be able to support themselves nutritiously. Diamond lists 8 founder crops that were essential to supporting newly emerged farmer-herders. These 8 crops include emmer wheat, barley, lentil pea, chickpea, bitter vetch, and flax (126-127). These crops are also extremely prevalant and valuable today. As Diamond states, “As a result, cereals today account for over half of all calories consumed by humans and include five of the modern world’s 12 leading crops” (125).  These crops were extremely important because of their high nutritious value which allowed societies to be well-nourished and supported. Furthermore, these crops were all domesticable in the right places, making them easy and plentiful for societies. Possessing these crops made it easier for hunter-gatherers to become more sedentary because it provided enough nutrition in plentiful amounts; therefore, the hunter-gatherers could do less roaming.

Hunter-gatherers did not consciously choose to become farmer-herders. Instead, the availability to grow domesticable wild plants made this choice for them. These domesticable crops only began to be farmed when it was realized that they could grow easily. This observation was made only through natural causes and not conscious ones. Diamond uses the example of a strawberry. Strawberries went through a natural evolution to be able to reproduce and spread, and strawberries are now a crop that can be planted and harvested( 116-117). This example gives some insight into how hunter-gatherers observed that plants could be farmed. Diamond states that “those principles of crop development by artificial selection still serve as our most understandable model of the origin of species by natural selection(130). For example, hunter-gatherers could eat many strawberries, and eventually pass out the seeds through in latrines. After returning to these latrines after time has past, the hunter-gatherer may notice that strawberries have grown in these places. It is this natural process that leads to the beginnings of the farmer-herder lifestyle. As long as hunter-gatherers were in possession of crops like these, as well as some of the 8 founder crops, they could support the switch to the farmer-herder lifestyle. Without these domesticable wild foods, hunter-gatherers could obviously never have cultivated any crops that could sustain a sedentary lifestyle.

If you’ve ever read Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, you know that the most immediate cause of food production was proper location.  Although Diamond presents the readers with a few different causes, I believe location was the most important.  He says, “…around 8500 B.C. in Mediterranean habitats of the Fertile Crescent…, only 3,000 years later in the climatically and structurally similar Mediterranean habitats South Europe…”(104) about the different times in which different locations thrived. To me, this means that certain countries were faster with food production because of where they were located.  The countries that were quickest with the transition from hunter-gatherers to farmer-herders were located so they had the East-West axis as an advantage.  Diamond tells us that, even though E-W axis was important, food production wasn’t necessarily a discovery or invention, but fate(105).  Food production just happened, which leads me to believe that it was location, and not a seemingly less natural cause, like domestication.  I also believe that many of the secondary reasons would be nothing without the benefit of location.  If a country was in a cold, barren land, would domestication be so easy?  Would Food production be so easy?  The answer is no.  I think it is safe to say that location played the biggest part in the rise of food production, though other secondary factors quickened the pace. 

The East-West axis was an interesting, but important factor in food production.  The axis created an indifference in climate between each area on it.  Two countries that shared the axis had virtually the same climate, and therefore the same animals and plants.  This way, trade was easier, and food production was made quicker.  Each E-W axis country could conceivably trade with each other to receive new crops that would work in either climate.  Location was also important for crops.  In some areas, edible plants and fruits were abundant, whereas other places had little plants that could be eaten.  It was all about the luck of the draw.  If a tribe was lucky, they either moved to, or originated in a great location that was easy to domesticate.  Jared Diamond also notes that, with a steady climate, edible plants had a longer growing season(Diamond, 138).  With the axis, hunter gatherers were more likely to settle down, because the land allowed them to have comfortable living situations, with plenty of plants and animals.  “By harvesting those individual wild plants possessing these desirable qualities to an exceptional degree, ancient peoples unconsciously dispersed the plants and set them on the road to domestication”(Diamond, 119).  With this quote, Diamond shows that, for the countries that had the plants due to location, that food production was almost an accident, but it required the hunter gatherers to change into farmer herders. 

Besides the East-West axis, other areas were fertile and easy to inhabit permanently, like the Fertile Crescent, hence the name.  “A third advantage of the Fertile Crescent’s Mediterranean zone is that it provides a wide range of altitudes and topographies within a short distance”(Diamond, 139-140).  This means that the Fertile Crescent had the right location- and by location I mean it is located in a place that allows for good crop growth and animal domestication- to have quick food production.  The diversity that was inside of the Fertile Crescent helped it to have more plants and animals, which allowed for more domestication, along with Eurasia, which was also a location- benefited area.  The location of Eurasia gave it many domesticable animals, which in turn allowed for easier food production.  Once hunter gatherers were able to have domestic animals and plants, they could settle down and become farmer gatherers.  Diamond states that the hunter gatherers learned that some animals were best kept alive, which gave them even more reason to settle down(Diamond, 88).  The location of many areas helped plant and animal domestication, which then helped speed along food production.