The majority of human existence on Earth has been spent struggling to survive in the face of the elements.

• During the ice ages, Homo sapiens spent the majority of their time hunting, gathering food, and maintaining their warmth and dryness.

• Modern humans likely followed herds of bison and mastodon — two early sources of food, as they migrated from their original habitat in Africa to Europe, Asia, Australasia, and the Americas.

• They were so good at their hunting that many animal herds were nearly wiped out.

The ice melted and the climate changed, opening up new opportunities for food production.

• As they learned how to domesticate plants, our human ancestors started to collect edible plants.

• They were liberated from their nomadic past by this agricultural revolution, which enabled them to find sedentary communities.

• Domesticating animals to produce meat, dairy products, and hides for clothing went hand in hand with domesticating plants. Dogs were probably the first domesticated animals, followed by livestock. Some animals were used as pack animals.

• Women were assigned domestic responsibilities such as cooking, caring for small animals, and weaving, while men handled farming, hunting, and herding of large animals.

• These new techniques for producing food could result in surpluses, which in turn allowed for the growth of larger communities and the advancement of civilization, in areas where farming was not possible, nomadism persisted.

• Nomads typically lived on the edge of civilization and did not create written languages.

• Mesopotamia was the site of the agricultural revolution, which later spread to Asia and Europe.

Mesopotamia, or the Fertile Crescent, developed the world’s first cities, and it is not unexpected that barley and wheat were first produced there.

• Around 5000 BCE, there were also the first recorded instances of irrigation and swamp drainage.

• Since the beginning of time, the Nile River has overflowed its banks, bringing water and fertile silt to the long and rich floodplain.

  • When the Nile failed, social unrest and revolution frequently followed.

Around 10,000 BCE, millet, barley, and other crops were domesticated in China's Yellow River valley, marking the start of the country's agricultural revolution.

• Around 5000 BCE, rice was first produced in the Yangtze River region, and later it spread throughout most of Asia.

• By 3000 BCE, the Chinese had devised the plow, and by 400 BCE, iron-clad farming tools.

• Before 5000 BCE, there was an agricultural revolution along the Indus River valley, where people grew wheat, barley, peas, and other crops.

By 3500 BCE, farming had spread throughout Europe, but for many years afterward, people simply moved on to new fields after tilling the soil to the point of depletion.

• This method is comparable to the "slash and burn" farming that semi-nomadic communities still practice today in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

• Crop rotation was a solution for replenishing depleted soil because it allowed one plant to take up what another had depleted the previous season. Around 1400 BCE, this method was first used in Europe.

• Around 5000 BCE, Mexico may have seen the start of the Western Hemisphere's agricultural revolution.

• The "three sisters" of the diet—maize, beans, and squash—provided the native population with a balanced diet and a source of nutrition, and they did so with little effort.

By 3000 BCE, the donkey, the buffalo, and the camel had all been domesticated as the first beasts of burden.

• In South America's Andes Mountains, llamas were used.

• Horses died out early in the Americas and weren't introduced back until after 1500 CE by Europeans, which caused a delay in animal husbandry in this region of the world.

• The horse has been greatly adapted over the ages by people as diverse as the Chinese and the Celts.

• The horses were primarily used to pull war chariots; later, for cavalry; and not frequently, for agricultural labor.

Globally, the majority of the human diet is made up of cereal grains, beans, vegetable oils, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, fresh meat on occasion, and fermented drinks made from either grains or fruits.

• Cereals were consumed in a variety of ways, but coarse bread was the primary form in Europe, the Near East, and the Americas.

• In the Roman Empire, white bread made from fine wheat flour without the germ was highly prized.

• In 350 BCE, Egypt and North Africa later turned into a granary for the Mediterranean peoples as a new variety of wheat suitable for such bread was grown there. Fruits and vegetables were consumed locally.

• The spread of new plants due to trade and migration throughout Eurasia and Africa greatly increased food production.

  • With the introduction of the banana by the Malay people, Sub-Saharan Africa produced food surpluses.

  • This fortunate occurrence allowed the city-states of Nigeria to prosper in the fourth century BCE.

• Since 100 BCE, sugarcane has been grown in India and the East Indies, but its introduction to Europe was delayed until the discovery of a refinement process.

  • Throughout most of the ancient world, honey and concentrated fruit were used as sweeteners instead.

The New World provided a variety of plants not found in the Old World, most notably maize, but also cacao, papaya, guava, avocado, pineapple, chilies, and sassafras.

• Today's more popular foods, including tomatoes, potatoes, and peanuts, have their origins in America.

• There has been a significant global impact on diet and nutritional resources as a result of Western explorers' "discovery" of America.