1. To Farm or Not to Farm Benefits, Costs and Risks of a New Way of Life

2. To Farm or Not to Farm From Guns, Germs and Steel, p 100

3. To Farm or Not to Farm Why did food production (agriculture) develop in certain areas first? Why did the pace of development differ greatly between originating locales?

4. To Farm or Not to Farm Misconceptions: –Ag was discovered or invented. No, it evolved. –Sharp divide between farmers and hunter/gatherers. Not true. –Hunter/gatherers did not manage the land. Also, not true.

5. To Farm or Not to Farm Economics of Time and Effort: –P. 107 (2 nd para.) – p. 108 in GGS. –Trade offs between: Taste Time Effort Return Surety, and Prestige (to a lesser degree)

6. To Farm or Not to Farm Diffusion or Not: –Whole system adoption –Piecemeal Adoption –No adoption –Depends largely on the answers to the economic questions.

7. To Farm or Not to Farm Competitive Advantages of Farming: –Decline of available wild foods. –More domesticable plants. –Improved Techniques. –Correlation (human pop. & food production) –Farmers overrun hunter/gatherers.

8. How to Make an Almond Plant Selection & Domestication

9. How to Make an Almond Modern Crop Development Methods: –Simple Seed Selection –Intentional Hybridization –Muta-genesis –Genetic Manipulation

10. How to Make an Almond Some Early Plant Domestications: –Pea: 8000 BC –Olive: 4000BC –Strawberries:middle ages –Pecans:1846 –Oak Acorn:not yet

11. How to Make an Almond What Does a Plant Want Out of Life? –TO REPRODUCE!!! –Spread genetic material to hospitable environments. Wind Water Animals/Birds –Outside (hide) –Inside (ingestion)

12. How to Make an Almond Latrines & Waste Dumps Unconscious Selection –Gather/Selection Criteria Size Tastiness Bitter/Poisonous Seeds Fleshiness Oily Seeds Long Fibres –Domestication Criteria (???) Availability Germination Inhibitors/Uniformity Plant Reproduction

13. How to Make an Almond Example: wheat & barley (10,000 BC) –Advantages of earliest domesticates: Edible High Yield Easily Grown Quick Germination/Early Harvest Readily Stored Self-Pollinating Little Requirement of Mutation

14. How to Make an Almond Stages of Domestication in the Fertile Crescent: –10,000 BC=>wheat & barley –4,000 BC=>fruit & nut trees –Late Stage=>other fruit –Late Stage=>weeds turned domesticates Table 7.1 - Summary of Global Domestication –Parallels Development of cereal/pulse combinations at early stage. Generally, Fibre plants also occurring at this time. –Differences Old World Technology vs New World Technology. In some cases, cereal carbos replaced by roots and tubers.

15. How to Make an Almond Example: Lack of Acorn Domestication: –Slow Growth: 10+ years. –Difficult Selection: squirrel competition. –Bitterness: controlled by multiple genes.

16. Assigned Readings Course Reader G G S Wednesday: “Apples or Indians”pp34-40pp131-156 By Diamond (GGS) Friday: “Zebras …”pp41-46pp157-175 By Diamond (GGS) “Spacious Skies …”pp47-54pp176-191 By Diamond (GGS)