Facts about cereals Available to Purchase

The cultivation of cereal crops was an important step in the social development of ancient man. When he depended on hunting or collecting for his food, man led a nomadic unsettled existence, living on meat, fish, nuts, roots and berries. But growing cereals contributed to man's settling down, about 10,000 years ago. This resulted in steady supplies and more leisure and time for the development of artistic skills, so that it can be said that all the great civilisations of the ancient world were founded on the basis of one or other of the cereal crops — in the Eastern Mediterranean area, on wheat and barley; in China and India on rice and in Central America on Indian corn or maize.