A long time ago
• For about 4 million years early man a hunter gatherer.
• Agriculture a relatively recent innovation/ and developed about 10,000 years ago in several places. - This corresponds with the end of the last ice age and a change in global climate.
• Valvilov a Russian geneticist hypothesized that there were a limited number of places in the
world in which crops originated.
• Generally these places are in tropical, or subtropical regions, at a middle elevation, in areas of varied topographies.
• In many of these places a diet consisting of a cereal grain and a legume emerged.
Farm Like an Egyptian
• The Egyptians developed technologies for drainage, irrigation, land preparation, and food storage about 5,500 years ago.
• 4,000 years ago Greeks began to classify plants – early botanists
• 2,500 to 1,500 years ago the Romans developed efficient agricultural systems that were the cornerstone of their strength
Saved by the Monks
• Much of Roman technology and knowledge were lost to most Europeans until the Renaissance.Monks in monasteries kept this knowledge alive