http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/
Interesting show on PBS. The fellow made some very interesting points
about man's development since about 11,000 years ago and the advent of
agriculture.
The upshot is that man's development of grain agriculture gave him an
advantage and led to rapid development of society and technology. But
it wasn't necessarily the advantage of having the grains as a new
source of food for man that was the advantage, but having the grains as
a source of animal feed that enabled the domestication of farm animals
that led to the great advances in culture, etc.
Grains did not give us the advantage because of its value as a human
food but because of its value as an animal feed. It was the resulting
domestication of animals that was the real breakthrough.
Grain production allowed more productive and consistent meat
production, which led to man's modern development.
TC