When comparing the eastern United States, New Guinea, and the Fertile Crescent, what, according to Guns, Germs, and Steel, caused such a great...

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difference that accounted for this discrepancy in food production was the fact that many
different crops that were ideal for food production were native to the Fertile Crescent. The
climate selected for crops that were easy to store and that produced edible seeds, like wheat
and barley, two plants cultivated fairly early in human history. These two plants also did not
have to be significantly modified to be useful. Put succinctly, eastern North America and New
Guinea did not have these plants. Corn, for example, which became the crucial crop for North
American societies, had to be tremendously modified from its wild form in order to be
domesticated and edible. There were other features of the Fertile Crescent--diversity of plant
species, long growing seasons, and others. North America nor New Guinea had these features, and
they also lacked the large animals that could be domesticated for food and labor. For these
reasons, the Fertile Crescent witnessed the development of...

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