I've read that in the Americas, some cultures abandoned farming, and went back to foraging. One reason was that having large stores of transportable food made you a sitting duck for your neighbors wanting to come and help themselves.
hollerith · 1h ago
Even more true of those farmers who kept livestock.
For example, the first written record (Tacitus) we have of the Germanic peoples (farmers who used livestock heavily) claims that the men did nothing but prepare for and engage in warfare: all the farming and taking care of the livestock was done by women.
And when wheat farming and livestock-keeping were introduced to Britain, after an initial enthusiasm, many went back to fishing and gathering chestnuts. (This was pre-history so there is some uncertainty about this.)
giraffe_lady · 2h ago
I'm not that familiar with this subject in general (and not at all for japan) but I have read some about grain agriculture in east asia. And one thing resounds from the record here: people do not like millet and will do their best not to eat it. In northern china (the region I'm most familiar with) people who could afford to eat rice or wheat did so as much as possible, the wealthiest landowners generally did not eat millet at all.
I don't know how this fits into the history here, but if they got rice & millet at the same time and could farm enough rice, it fits with what I've read about other places where both grains were available.
FWIW millet eats fine to my modern palate but then I've only had the probably better tasting modern varieties, who knows what that shit was like a few thousand years ago. I also have access to a wide variety of grains and I might feel differently if I had to pick one to eat every day of my life. Similar thing with oats, which have occupied a similar role in the mediterranean for a long ass time: animal fodder if you could afford wheat, your food if you couldn't.
jandrewrogers · 1h ago
I ate millet occasionally as a child. It is fine if you are accustomed to eating rougher cereals, which admittedly most people these days are not. Honestly, if people can eat quinoa then they should have no issue with millet.
In the US, millet is grown almost exclusively for animal feed.
johngossman · 1h ago
One of the plot points in Seven Samurai is that the peasants save their rice for the samurai and themselves eat millet. When the samurai learn this, they are horrified at the privation the peasants are putting themselves through.
3eb7988a1663 · 1h ago
That is an excellent insight about non-domesticated plant quality. Without human guidance, plants optimize for something significantly different than optimum tastiness or ease of harvest. Ancient corn varieties started with just seven kernels per cob.
chihuahua · 1h ago
Funny - I would probably eat mostly oats every day, if it was nutritionally complete. It's so convenient and pretty tasty.
For example, the first written record (Tacitus) we have of the Germanic peoples (farmers who used livestock heavily) claims that the men did nothing but prepare for and engage in warfare: all the farming and taking care of the livestock was done by women.
And when wheat farming and livestock-keeping were introduced to Britain, after an initial enthusiasm, many went back to fishing and gathering chestnuts. (This was pre-history so there is some uncertainty about this.)
I don't know how this fits into the history here, but if they got rice & millet at the same time and could farm enough rice, it fits with what I've read about other places where both grains were available.
FWIW millet eats fine to my modern palate but then I've only had the probably better tasting modern varieties, who knows what that shit was like a few thousand years ago. I also have access to a wide variety of grains and I might feel differently if I had to pick one to eat every day of my life. Similar thing with oats, which have occupied a similar role in the mediterranean for a long ass time: animal fodder if you could afford wheat, your food if you couldn't.
In the US, millet is grown almost exclusively for animal feed.