When
people began farming, they began to take an active role in adjusting the landscape and
environment to suit their needs. Before agriculture, people hunted wild animals and gathered
wild plants for food. This meant that they were at the whim of nature. People had to move from
place to place depending on the availability of food.
When people began
farming, they could stay in one place. They changed the environment to allow for this. This led
them to build permanent homes, clear fields, and redirect water for irrigation. They even
changed the animals and plants through domestication. People, in a sense, became the masters of
their domain.
This did not mean that farmers were immune from natural
events. In a sense, it made them even more vulnerable. Their hunter-gatherer ancestors could
easily move when the seasons changed or food or water became scarce. Farmers had to find ways to
weather these changes. If a drought was too severe or a pestilence came along, whole crops could
be lost,...
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