> Over 60 species of grasses have been harvested for their grains in Africa. > Most of these are famine or scarcity foods or are harvested casually and > opportunistically. Several species, however, have provided food on a > massive scale and have been staples for a number of tribes. If you had been living in a rural area as a child you would know that grass stem tips and seeds such as oats were foods of opportunity that we ate as we walked along- Therefore our ancestors probably did the same. AND in times of distress I feel that it would have made three meals a day however scant! So any seeds however small were probably eaten. A hungry person is very inventive. Ergo "Birds Nest Soup!". The starving Irish were sometimes said to be found dead with a green mouth from eating grass, had they eaten seeds they may have been found alive; however it was most probably a time of year when there were no seeds. It seems to me that to say cereal seed were not eaten on an "as available" basis long before cultivation; ignores reality. Best Regards, Lorenzo