Prehistoric hunter-gatherers ate fruit, berries and nuts, so how did early farmers decide to cultivate grain?

Question

Prehistoric hunter-gatherers ate fruit, berries and nuts, so how did early farmers decide to cultivate grain?

In: 12

Answer 1

Because they discovered fermentation and beer.

In fact, the archeological record seems to indicate the reason our ancestors actually settled down and started communities based on intentional agriculture was to produce beer specifically.

First of all, “beer” (meaning fermented grain water, not specifically modern IPAs) occurs naturally, it can be produced by something as simple as a hunter gatherer leaving grain stalks in a puddle while running from a storm, returning a day later and drinking the water.

Our anthological evidence in the middle east indicates the earliest settlements were based around grain agriculture – but what were they making? The same settlements indicate the oven and millstones were still hundreds/thousands of years away (so not bread or oatmeal). But we do find pottery and underground structures that are literally the same arrangements being used for beer production by rural natives in the region today.

So yeah, all we know for sure is that in the Middle East at least people went from hunter-gathering, to settling down and growing grain, before the invention of bread or baking AND with the technology required to ferment simple beers.