Eventually. Probably not with the first square foot to be plowed.
Slash & burn figures in here somewhere, probably mostly before the plow I imagine.
Food insecurity has been a way of life for most of human history, and basically all animal history.
Food security, surplus freed clan leaders for other pursuits, a boon to innovation.
We understand, they didn't leap from gnawing on the remains the wolves left behind, to planting a thousand acres of soy.
Today in the new millennium we can deplete our soil, & recover w/ fertilizer, etc.
The Nile floods, so depleted soils there were naturally replenished.
An agricultural field may be many things, but portable it is not.
They didn't have GPS tractors, so toil in the fields would have been a prominent feature in their daily routine.
The History Channel ran a TV series titled Alone, about survivalists competing to see who could survive in the forest the longest.
One of the many things I learned from this series:
despite the fact each competitor / participant had with him about as much modern gear as he could carry, they rarely got a day off.
They were either attending to their shelter, gathering wood for fuel, hauling water, or otherwise on an almost perpetual hunt for food.
When such primitive living was an individual's only option life was difficult, dangerous, and short.
It's easier to stay than to go.
You know that.
I know that.
They knew that.
So we can deduce, nomads traveled for a reason.
Such reasons may include soil depletion. When the area they occupied simply couldn't feed their population, they'd move on. No huge sacrifice. They didn't live in mansions. They lived in huts.
