lobo-hotei Wrote:
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> There isn't a need for a diffusion process. Wasn't
> one of the earliest food storage ideas hiding the
> food in baskets/bags in the ground?
>
> I imagine hiding nuts and such in a grass fiber
> basket/bag for later use, along with moist ground
> and/or rain, and some sun could have caused a
> portion of the nuts/grains to start growing and
> when the owners came back to dig it up find that
> there were smaller versions of the trees/plants on
> top of their cache. After digging it up and
> finding the plants coming out of the nut/grain
> cache, an individual could have repeated the
> process and found agriculture.


Hey, thanks! How could I miss the obvious.


> Also purposeful planting of specific foods could
> be a primitive form of "baiting" an area for game.
> Knowing what plants a certain type of game prefers
> they could plant this in an ideal area to allow
> easy approach and slaughter of game for food plus
> the added benefit of the "bait" being edible too.


But this would be after-the-fact of using crop farming. Neat idea, but is not as good as your first paragraph.


> Having hid/stored the food nearby for easy access,
> then having it start growing there and be closer
> instead of a long hike to original source would
> have been figured out, and utilized, fairly
> quickly I would think.


So, how about this Q: if the accidental discovery came from storing food, would we be able to conclude this model is the answer to every independent crop-farming society? I don't see why not.