Farming was probably the most important human invention. Before farming, people were much like other animals. They hunted and collected wild fruits and leaves to eat. Farming started when people learned to domesticate wild animals for milk and meat. They also realised that they could grow what they wanted to eat by sowing seeds they collected, choosing those which were bigger, tastier or more nutritious and were easy to harvest. These first farmers meant that other people were freed from looking for food all the time. They could do different things like live in the first cities and specialise in other crafts or trades: making pots, shoes or bricks for building.

When and where did farming start?
Farming seems to have started in various different parts of the world. Pigs were probably the first animals to be domesticated 15,000 years ago in Mesopotamia — what is now Iraq. Actual farming of crops began about 11,500 years ago in the countries bordering the east Mediterranean Sea: the Levant. Not long after, other peoples domesticated crops such as rice in China, maize in Mexico and potatoes in Peru and so on.

Sowing seeds in what??
To give their seeds the best possible conditions for growing well, the first farmers invented the plough (also spelled 'plow'). This device was pulled by an animal and steered by somebody walking behind. The idea was — and still is today — to break up the soil and kill all the other plants (weeds) so that the seeds the farmer planted had no competition.

So far as we other animals were concerned, this was the start of a major disaster. Because farming was so successful, many more people could survive and populations increased — which meant that more land was needed for growing more food. Today, almost all the farmable land on the planet has now been taken by humans. The forests that once grew on most of the land, together with all the animals that lived in them, have been destroyed by being burned or cut down. This is still happening in the areas where there still are forests — like the Amazon and large parts of Indonesia. Click here for a short video about forest destruction. Very sad!

Orangutans and palm oil
Orangutans are in peril because all their rainforest home is being cut down for yet more plantations of oil palm. Oil from these palms is used in all kinds of things, particularly in food products. Most of Indonesia's forests have now been cut down and burned for endless oil palm plantations. These tropical rainforests were home for orangutans which are now listed as critically endangered and face extinction. For more on this, go to Orangutan Conservancy