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The most important proximate cause of food production is the domestication of animals and plants. The benefits of animal domestication and herding help the hunter-gatherers. Through products such as meat, milk, and manure fertilization, the availability of calories are increased. This will then allow for more births in society. These births will lead to a larger population density. Also, storage for the extra food will be able to sustain the people. The animal fur provides warmth in order to withstand cold winters; the animals are also useful for transporting goods. A partial immunity developed from the animal derived germs, such as smallpox, measles, and the flu. This domestication helped hunter-gatherers to become more civilized as a society.
“At current rates…hunter-gatherer lifestyle.” Long ago, people relied on nomadic ways of hunting and herding. Today, however, food is produced by people themselves or by someone else (Diamond, 86).  The gradual change to another strategy was taken because of the decline in availability of wild fame, prestige, and technologies. Some animal resources became less abundant or even extinct. Wild game availability declined mainly because of the climate, and plant domestication became more rewarding. Technologies for collecting, processing, and storing wild foods also developed. This change in strategy did not happen all at once, but at a gradual pace.
The prosperity of food production also depended on the geography. The spread of food production in Eurasia was fast because of the climate, location, and disease conditions to migrants. However, the diffusion of food production differed greatly in the Americas, Africa, and New Guinea. The climate, deserts, diseases, and jungles made the spread of food production slower. The lack of the adaptation of domesticates slowed the diffusion in the New World. This is because of the continental differences in the axis orientation, latitude and longitude. Not only was food production affected, but also technology and writing. America’s song “America the Beautiful” refers more to Eurasia than the New World.