There seems to be no end to the bitter arguments over genetically modified food crops and the problems they may cause. The familiar assertion is that humans since the start of civilisation have always modified their food plants, by selecting superior strains or by breeding hybrids. That is true; but humans have never before produced modified foods by inserting genes derived from fungi, bacteria, insects or fish and foreign to the plants which they are intended to improve. Therein lies a vast difference which we ignore at our peril.
Not surprisingly, the recent emphasis on food sources has prompted renewed interest in some of the queries over crop raising in ancient times pondered by archaeologists. It is accepted that the earliest evidence regarding experiments in crop improvement comes to us from western Asia and derives from a vast area lying between the Mediterranean and the Zagros Mountains and between Anatolia and the Persian Gulf. The earliest crops raised by primitive farmers in Neolithic times were einkorn and emmer wheat and barley, followed closely by peas, lentils and vetches.
An attempt to throw further light on the first cultivators has been made by three Israeli scientists in Science for June 2. They refer to proposals that cereals were first domesticated soon after 7000BC, and pulses and possibly ryes even earlier in 8900 to 8600BC.
It is generally believed that plants were first domesticated in the Jordan Valley and the adjacent southern Levant, but the paper seeks more precision and argues for a more restricted region within what is often called the Fertik Crescent, surrounding the upper reaches of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. In this area are to be found the wild progenitors of the Neolithic founder crops, einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, barley, lentils, bitter vetch, chickpeas and flax. Outside the immediate area there is evidence dating from 7300 to 700BC for domesticated cereals and pulses. Remains discovered during excavations of prehistoric sites lying outside the natural range of the wild plant ancestors are accepted as good evidence of local domestication. Einkorn wheat has been discovered at Jericho (6500BC) and Tell Aswad (6900BC), lentils at Yifth'el (6800BC) and chickpeas at Jericho (6500BC).
The region lying between the upper Tigris and Euphrates yields evidence of having been a centre of agricultural innovation, and its overall archaeological record is of a wealthy society which enjoyed an ample food supply. It is considered possible that climate changes between 9000 and 8000BC affecting the locality prompted the end of the nomadic life style and the setting up of settlements based on farming. Competition may have intensified the drive towards plant domestication and cropping, much as it still does today, and also promoted the emigration of populations to surrounding areas, taking their selected cereals with them.