>At the very least it seems less dangerous to concentrate your food reserves in a small area You might think that... but for the first several centuries of the

>At the very least it seems less dangerous to concentrate your food reserves in a small area You might think that... but for the first several centuries of the adoption of agriculture, massive famines every 5 years or so due to soil depletion of nutrients were commonplace. No such issue was had with foraging. Agriculture also invented the concept of the nuclear family, and of men owning spouses and children as property. Women began to bargain sexual liberty for material security. Men were incentivized to make certain they weren't 'wasting' scant resources on raising someone else's kids. Tribes raised kids in common and all we know of believed in a concept of shared fatherhood. Agriculture also gave a big boost to communicable disease. In nomadic groups, communicable disease often burns through a population quickly and is over with. In agricultural communities, pathogens can establish themselves and circulate for years. Agriculture also gave raise to strong notions of private property, and gave us lords and vassals and the like. There are certainly downsides to agriculture, but lots of them are not immediately visible and many are compensated for by the benefits agriculture provides once people manage to figure out that the church isn't the best guide to tell you when to grow your crops and crop rotation works. When talking about widespread lifestyles like this, there will always be profound costs and significant benefits to every single option. A desire for a clear and sensible 'obvious right answer' is fundamentally flawed.