Population expansion is an old problem for humans. The hominoidae tend to be low population density animals, but once our species showed up about 200,000 years ago, density increased by an order of magnitude. With the development of language about 80,000 years ago, population really began exploding, which is why humans colonized the entire globe so rapidly. Humans use movement as a problem solving tool. About 10,000 years ago, we ran out of room to expand into, and so we switched from extensive utilization of resources to intensive. That was the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution, and one of the most important food sources developed at that time was a large seeded annual grass which tended to grow in large, pure, native stands --- wheat. It, along with maize and rice form the plant triumvirate that feeds much of humanity. But research has not kept pace with population growth.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 23:48:22 +0000