Agriculture
Agriculture is the practice of taking steps to make sure food is available to be harvested later.
Early humans practiced a hunter-gatherer economy. Wild animals were hunted, and their flesh consumed. Edible fruits, edible leaves, edible stems and edible roots were gathered from wild plants.
About ten to fifteen thousand years ago, relatively recently in human history, the invention of agriculture revolutionized the production of food.
Rounding up, and herding animals, for human consumption, made for a more dependable supply of meat. Milk could be harvested, from nursing females, without killing the animals. Eventually other animal products, like wool, could be harvested, without killing the animals. Animals were bred, to be more tame. Some animals humans cultivate are markedly different from their wild cousins.
Humans also started to cultivate plants, instead of just gathering ripe edible plants, as they encountered them. Edible plants, like wheat and maize, have been extensively modified, since they were domesticated.
Crop husbandry includes: clearing fields, fertilizing crops, removing competing plants, called weeds, making sure the developing crops have enough water, fighting vermin, like insects and rodents.
