Was the shift to farming really the worst mistake in human history?

The well-established idea that our ancestors’ transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural life had disastrous health consequences, but new research should prompt a rethink. says. Michael Marshall

To Michael Marshall

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Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The move to agriculture was an even worse upheaval. Starting about 12,000 years ago, some of our ancestors began growing crops, abandoning hundreds of thousands of years of egalitarian, sustainable hunter-gatherer lifestyles. The result has been poor health, restricted diets, new diseases, climate change and unsustainable practices that have led to her sixth mass extinction.

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