"[T]he earliest farmers expended way more calories in growing food than they did in hunting and gathering it."

So, why do it?

These societies had seen the value of owning stuff – they were already recognizing "private property rights," [said says Samuel Bowles, the director of the Behavioral Sciences Program at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico]. That's a big transition from nomadic cultures, which by and large don't recognize individual property. All resources, even in modern day hunter-gatherers, are shared with everyone in the community....

[And t]he early farmers had one advantage over their nomadic cousins: Raising kids is much less work when one isn't constantly on the move. And so, they could and did have more children.