Agriculture and Environment: Commodities

Overview: Wheat (Triticum species)

Wild wheat, and its close relative barley, originated in Asia's Fertile Crescent. The archaeological record suggests that people were collecting and eating wild wheat and barley as early as 17,000 B.C. Both bear their seeds on the tops of stalks that shatter when ripe, dropping the seeds to the ground where they germinate (Diamond 2002).

Sought after, stalks that do not drop seeds
This trait helps wild plants to reproduce, but makes it difficult for humans to gather the seeds. Though in the wild a mutation that causes the seeds not to drop can be lethal, this is attractive to human gatherers. Initially, it was unconsciously selected; stalks that did not drop their seeds were the only ones that could be harvested by humans after they ripened.

After these seeds were gathered, they were probably dropped accidentally and later planted on purpose. In both ways the seeds became more dominant relative to their ancestors. It appears that wheat may have first been consciously planted as early as 8500 B.C. (Zohary and Hopf 2001; Lev-Yadun et al. 2000).

Recognisable agriculture followed by at least 6000 B.C. The earliest evidence of people using bread wheat (the spelta variety, commonly known as spelt) is from 4700 B.C. in the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas (Zohary 2001).

Most common plant on the planet
Those who first domesticated foods such as wheat had a clear advantage over all but their closest neighbours. The surpluses agriculture produced freed parts of the population from hunting and gathering, which enabled them to develop the world's first metal tools, writing, armies, and eventually empires that allowed them to spread their food-producing technologies, among other things (Diamond 2002).

As a result of these activities and subsequent domestication programs, wheat is now probably the most common plant on the planet, with rice a close second. Early agriculturalists in Mesopotamia quickly found the production of cereals such as wheat to be unsustainable due to low and inconsistent rainfall, the soil erosion and degradation that followed deforestation, and salinisation from irrigation (Diamond 2002).

A tool for political power
As the Mesopotamians destroyed their resource base, agriculture spread west into present-day Egypt and Israel and northwest into Europe. As farming shifted, so did political power. Three important precedents were established. First, agriculture was the basis not only of economic but also political power.

Second, agriculture allowed and even encouraged population growth. With reliable food supplies and even surpluses, birth spacing could be reduced to one to two years. The fastest population growth rates presently occur in agricultural areas. And third, agriculture outstrips the ability of a region to regenerate nutrients that are the basis of productive and profitable agriculture, creating moving agricultural frontiers.

Soul of the Earth
At least 5,000 years ago wheat had spread to North Africa (especially Egypt), Asia, and parts of Europe, areas where it has been in continuous cultivation ever since. The term ancient Egyptians used for wheat is thought to be kamut, which meant "Soul of the Earth." Varieties of these traditional wheats are still in cultivation today in the United States.