Editing Farm (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of agriculture}}
{{See also|Timeline of agriculture and food technology}}

[[File:Centres of origin and spread of agriculture.svg|thumb|right|upright=2.0|Map of the world showing approximate centers of origin of agriculture and its spread in prehistory: the Fertile Crescent (11,000 [[Before Present|BP]]), the Yangtze and Yellow River basins (9,000 BP), and the New Guinea Highlands (9,000–6,000 BP), Central Mexico (5,000–4,000 BP), Northern South America (5,000–4,000 BP), sub-Saharan Africa (5,000–4,000 BP, exact location unknown), eastern North America (4,000–3,000 BP).<ref name="DiamondandBellwood2003">{{Cite journal |  doi = 10.1126/science.1078208 | last1 = Diamond | first1 = J. | last2 = Bellwood | first2 = P. | title = Farmers and Their Languages: The First Expansions | journal = Science | volume = 300 | issue = 5619 | pages = 597–603 | year = 2003 | pmid = 12714734|bibcode = 2003Sci...300..597D | url = http://faculty.bennington.edu/%7Ekwoods/classes/enviro-hist/diamond%20agriculture%20and%20language.pdf | citeseerx = 10.1.1.1013.4523 | s2cid = 13350469 }}</ref>]]

Farming has been innovated at multiple different points and places in human history. The transition from [[hunter-gatherer]] to settled, agricultural societies is called the [[Neolithic Revolution]] and first began around 12,000 years ago, near the beginning of the [[Geologic time scale|geological]] [[Epoch (geology)|epoch]] of the [[Holocene]]<ref>
{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.westfalen-blatt.de/nachricht/2012-11-25-klimaschutz-die-ziele-schmelzen-dahin/613/
 |title       = International Stratigraphic Chart
 |publisher   = [[International Commission on Stratigraphy]]
 |access-date  = 2012-12-06
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://archive.today/20130212172350/http://www.westfalen-blatt.de/nachricht/2012-11-25-klimaschutz-die-ziele-schmelzen-dahin/613/
 |archive-date = 2013-02-12
}}</ref> around 12,000 years ago.<ref name="Barker2009">{{cite book|author=Graeme Barker|title=The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory: Why did Foragers become Farmers?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fkifXu2gx4YC|access-date=15 August 2012|date=25 March 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-955995-4}}</ref> It was the world's first historically verifiable revolution in agriculture. Farming spread from the Middle East to Europe and by 4,000 BC people that lived in the central part of Europe were using [[ox]]en to pull plows and wagons.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.localhistories.org/farming.html|title=A History of Farming|website=www.localhistories.org|access-date=2016-04-04}}</ref> Subsequent step-changes in human farming practices were provoked by the [[British Agricultural Revolution]] in the 18th century, and the [[Green Revolution]] of the second half of the 20th century.

Farming originated independently in different parts of the world, as hunter-gatherer societies transitioned to food production rather than food capture. It may have started about 12,000 years ago with the domestication of livestock in the [[Fertile Crescent]] in western Asia, soon to be followed by the cultivation of crops. Modern units tend to specialize in the crops or livestock best suited to the region, with their finished products being sold for the retail market or for further processing, with farm products being traded around the world.