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Plant domestication was initially thought to have first appeared in the Fertile Crescent, with later societies in the Nile, Yellow River, and Indus valleys also adopting domesticated plants. However, now it has become evident that various societies have independently discovered how to domesticate given plants for food production. These plant staples have included wheat, barley, rice, lintels, beans, millet, corn/maize, and others (Figure 1).<ref>For more on the background to plant domestication, see: Spielvogel, J. J. (2015). <i>Western civilization</i> (Ninth edition). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, pg. 6.</ref>
Several results ultimately developed with the domestication of these plants. First, the benefits of plant domestication was to increase food supplies and make them more predictable. Although plants, as they become domesticate, are susceptible to disease and other detrimental results, over time genetics of plants begin to alter. For wheat, barley, and other grains, these developments can take hundreds of years before fully domesticated varieties form. However, once domesticated varieties form, they now require societies to more fully invest in them. This includes removing weeds, providing fertilizer, and harvesting at appropriate times so that yields are not lost. Thus, the first major impact is increased plant domestication requires societies to be settled. Greater dependence on plant domestication ultimately makes societies live in villages, towns, and even cities. This change led to a change in gender roles, often leading to the emphasis of men being more focused on production and creation of food resources, while women became caretakers of the home. Previously, women likely spend much of their time collecting food for human societies. In effect, domestication led to a major cultural evolution and not just a new mode in obtaining food.<ref>For more on the labor involved in agriculture and how that fundamentally changes society, see: Peterson, J. (2002). <i>Sexual revolutions: gender and labor at the dawn of agriculture.</i> Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.</ref>
The other major development evident in New and Old World societies is the freeing up of labor. While plant domestication can be labor intensive, the greater output of food allows larger populations to form. Most or if not all settled societies show evidence of families becoming larger, where even social norms and systems evolved so that women began having more children. Once labor increased, then more people were able to focus on other activities, including the production of other goods that supported agriculture. Innovations often lead to other innovations to support them. Agriculture led to many secondary innovations that helped to support it. This included new technologies such as plows, the need for mathematics to calculate field areas, and eventually writing became one result in some societies that needed to account for agricultural goods being produced.<ref>For more on innovations based on agriculture, see: Mays, L. W. (Ed.). (2010). <i>Ancient water technologies.</i> Dordrecht [Netherlands] ; London ; New York: Springer.</ref>
While we often see these impacts, particularly as they spread across different agricultural regions, as having beneficial results for societies. The reality is much more mixed. First, the environment greatly suffered. Plant domestication leads to the need for clearing more land, including burning of fields to fertilize them and clear them. This, already after 8000 before present, began to have an impact on societies and even likely global temperature. While we think global warming has been a modern effect of industry, agriculture arguably helped to create the first significant wave of human-induced climate change.<ref>For more on environmental impact of agriculture and plant domestication, see: Balter, M. (2013). Archaeologists Say the “Anthropocene” Is Here--But It Began Long Ago. <i>Science</i>, 340(6130), 261–262. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.340.6130.261 </ref>
[[File:Feature2originmap600.png|thumbnail|Figure 1. Multiple centers and areas of plant domestication arose, although most staple crops are found in the Mediterranean basin and in Asia.]]
