The Question (ID Number 139)...

In the book, you say that "modern society" started around the middle east. You also said that with the ABC’s of ecology that we are food and we have to have food to be. My understanding is that the middle-east is a desert, so my question is, where did they grow the food? Or maybe a better question is, are the deserts in the area a result of desertification?

...and the response:

The Fertile Crescent did indeed at one time deserve that name. Thousands of years of poor agricultural practices made a desert of it. The Pyramids too once stood in the midst of a lush, green landscape.