# Why did humans start farming? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 29, 2017, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-start-farming/787632 "2017-05-29T03:34:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-start-farming/787632/141 "2017-06-07T00:30:46Z")
Pointing out two examples of large scale coordinated irrigation systems in no way makes the case that in _general_ wheat farming _required_ such. OTOH rice paddy farming fairly consistently required groups of families working together and coordinating their efforts. In point of fact [even today](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainfed_agriculture) > [@](#): > > rainfed agriculture accounts for more than 95% of farmed land in sub-Saharan Africa, 90% in Latin America, 75% in the Near East and North Africa; 65% in East Asia and 60% in South Asia. Wheat is not the only rainfed crop across the globe today, sorghum and millet are more drought tolerant, but even [in recent years](http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Publications/CABI_Publications/CA_CABI_Series/Rainfed_Agriculture/Protected/Rainfed_Agriculture_Unlocking_the_Potential.pdf) there is increasing amount of rainfed wheat agriculture (with increasing yield). And of course the spread of wheat in history was by way of dryland farming. Historically [in the Near East and the Fertile Crescent](http://www.ancient.eu/article/9/) > [@](#): > > Artificial irrigation systems existed, but people preferred to rely on the rainy, hilly areas to ensure a more even spread of precipitation. Main crops were wheat, barley, millet, and emmer. _In drier areas_ irrigation was required. The same logic that underlays the “rice hypothesis” would predict that drier areas that did require large scale coordinated irrigation systems would develop cultural norms that involved thinking in more interrelated and holistic terms than neighboring cultures that did not require irrigation to farm their wheat. Testing that would be an interesting study. And of course your stating two examples completely misses the point of the premise that is a relative comparison between the two methods. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-start-farming/787632/142 "2017-06-07T15:55:45Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Pointing out two examples of large scale coordinated irrigation systems in no way makes the case that in _general_ wheat farming _required_ such. I didn’t say anything about “requires”, so this is a bit of a strawman. I was merely pointing out that it was irrigated wheat farming that led to all the first states and civilizations, so it’s not a convincing argument to me that rice farming somehow has a more collective character, or whatever, than wheat farming. That’s clearly not the case. Also, pointing to a \*modern \*increase in dryland farming is a non sequitur for this argument, which is about the \*origins \*of the disparate lifeways. I’m not arguing that rice farming doesn’t involve more (small-scale) collectivism. I’m arguing that, in the main, early historic wheat farming was even more of a collectivist effort, just at the state level. Yes, you’re right, so far I’ve only provided two examples (although irrigation was also a feature in Chinese wheat-growing areas)- but in the ancient Near East, the origin of “wheat culture”, those two cultures represented the majority of the production and population. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-start-farming/787632/143 "2017-06-07T16:00:23Z")
I guess I’m also saying I inherently distrust such easy, evo-devo thinking as “wheat vs rice” when it smacks of hasty generalization, localized data and mere correlation not causation. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-start-farming/787632/144 "2017-06-08T00:27:30Z")
I’m going to restrain myself from furthering this with the one exception … what exactly do you think “evo-devo” means? “Evo-devo” actually has a meaning in the scientific literature you know … [evolutionary developmental biology](http://www.pnas.org/content/97/9/4424.full.pdf), the study of how evolution acts by way of controlling the developmental mechanisms that control body shape and form. No idea what you think these authors formulated hypothesis and experiment which had the potential to falsify it has to do with evo-devo. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-start-farming/787632/145 "2017-06-08T12:39:30Z")
Yeah, my bad, I’m not using it in the strict sense there, I couldn’t think of a more accurate term for the sociological/anthropological equivalent of evo-devo’s habit of making simple “Just So” stories for complicated situations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-start-farming/787632.md?page=7)