On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, Ben Balzer wrote:

> > >And consider.  If humans themselves never ate wild grains, why
> > >would they go to the trouble of domesticating and cultivating the
> > >things?  Why would they choose an inedible food as a crop?  There
> > >is a paradox here.
> >
> No paradox. Grains have some excellent qualities- they store without a
> refrigerator, are energy dense (more calories per pound if you're on the
> move), high yields, have a short life cycle- so if you move on, you can
> start farming them the immediate next season cf fruit trees take years.
> Sounds too good to be true- only problem is if you want to live past 45 in
> good health.

Paradox remains.  None of this would be evident or relevant to
hunter-gatherers who were not already in the habit of eating
grains.

Todd Moody
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