maize

Climate change and the origins of farming in Mexico

We're not going to be the first generation of humans to cope with severe climate change. We may simply be the first to know just what's happening.

An international research team traced the growth of farming in Mexico's Iguala Valley. Their new report charts the rise of agriculture as the climate became warmer and wetter. Farming began after the last Ice Age. New lakes formed. Corn and squash were being regularly farmed 8,000 years ago. Then farming spread. Agricultural burning was used. Sixty-three hundred years ago domestic crops were plentiful. Forest clearing increased.

Then, around 1,… Read more