### ch02p72 climate change led to cereal domestication <blockquote class=paraphrase> The timeline of human agriculture probably went something like: * after the peak of the last Ice Age, around 20,000 years ago things started to warm up, which was great for humans and the plants we eat because of the warmth and wet. There was also a rise in carbon dioxide levels. This led to a huge population boom for humans. * then the Younger Dryas period happens, around 12,900 and 11,700 years ago, and the cold snap reduced rainfall and warmth in the Fertile Crescent. This probably led to the cultivation of cereals, out of desperation, because why else would you eat something so tiny and fiddly? </blockquote> This answers my “why the hell would people bother making bread” question that’s been bothering me for ages; it’s not so much that “bread is a perfect food” as “there wasn’t enough food so people did what they had to do to make the available stuff edible.” Since there’s a lot more grass in the world than, say, fruit and nut trees. - [[Tamed by Alice Roberts#ch02p72 climate change led to cereal domestication|View in Vault]]