Agriculture, the deliberate planting and harvesting of plants and herding of animals, is one of the greatest inventions of humanity. It has had marked biological, societal, and ecological consequences, which perdure to this day and will do so for many years to come. In this course, we will examine the evolutionary processes that have affected plants during and after domestication. Specifically, we will discuss some of the modern analytical tools that have allowed plant biologists and archaeologists to learn more about crop evolution. We will examine where plant cultivation started and how plants were modified as a consequence of the selection pressures imposed by cultivation leading to their eventual domestication.
Some of the questions we will attempt to answer, are:
 | Where did agriculture originate and when? |
| Where did our major crops originate? |
| How were plants modified as a consequence of cultivation? |
| Study questions midterm 1 |
| Study questions midterm 2 |