According to Jared Diamond, at least, many of the nuts we eat are mutants: wild almonds have enough cyanide in them to kill you.
The acorns we have on on our property have lots of bitter tannins in them...
>
>My reading of Marvin Harris, etc., is that you're right about the relative
>amount of work women did relative to men, but that _all_ had more leisure.
>I also think that this labor is less alienated, in that it's done for the
>collective -- the survival of the extended family, clan, and tribe --
>rather than to provide tribute to some ruling class.
There is an argument that the invention of agriculture was--in anything but the longest of runs--a bad thing: it means you can't run away when the thugs-with-spears show up demanding tribute...
Brad DeLong