When the pleistocene megafauna was destroyed, people started domestication animals like sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, and other domesticated animals. People starts raising these animals mainly for their meat. During the Neolithic times, it is easy to start domesticating animals because the villages are surrounded by forest …show more content…
This creates a dilemma for the people because they must choose whether to grow their foods or to raise animals. The ancient states and empires choose to continue planting their food source because the “net calories return on each calorie of human effort invested in plant production is on the average about ten times greater than the net calorie return obtained from animal production” (Harris: 194). Planting food for human consumption is more efficient because it requires less work to do than planting plants for animals. The state decides to prioritize in feeding the human population than feeding the crops to domesticated animals. Some domesticated animals are more valuable than be killed for their meat because they could be useful for farming and some can produce milk. The animals that can be used “as traction machines, as producers of fibers, and as providers of fertilizer” and the animals that can produce milk are not killed because they are worth more alive than killed (Harris: 194). As a result, the people of Tenochtitlán decrease their consumption of animal meat for protein. In the Old World region, whom was once the best place for “meat and plant production”, consumption of animal meat became a luxury and no