More Is Never Enough 9died. Instead, insights about how to find food while withstanding en-
vironmental pressures were passed along. The stories of long-deceased
generations could now live on.
Fire, language, and memory markedly improved the odds of human
survival. Yet life was still tenuous. Competition for food was constant.
The environment remained unpredictable. So in the quest for food, hu-
mans migrated northward and outward over land and by sea to other
continents and islands. As their numbers ebbed and flowed, other
species of humans unable to survive went extinct. Only one remained—
Homo sapiens. Every person on Earth today is one of their descendants.
Fast forward tens of thousands of years to when hunting and gathering
had faded away, and humans were staking their future on farming. The
Europeans who came to America, long after Native Americans had
already arrived, were coming to farm some of the richest land on the
planet. Yet tying their survival to farming was far from guaranteed. From
the land and the environment came hard lessons in how to turn virgin
soil without breaking plows, how to withstand torrential flooding, how
to tolerate blistering summer heat, and how to endure seasons of deep
snow.
Not until being handed a picture of snow falling on Cabot, Vermont,
did I think much about the challenges colonial farmers faced when
confronting environmental pressures. The sight of snow blanketing
buildings and leafless trees was not out of the ordinary for a cold win-
ter’s day in December or January. But the caption written below the
image riveted my attention—July , 8 .
That year began much like any other in New England with cold
January weather and plenty of snow. Spring arrived a bit early, but
temperatures were still within normal ranges.^ In mid-April, a late
snow blanketed the region, but by the end of the month, thermometers
had climbed to the low 80 s.
As farmers planted their crops and vegetables, hopes ran high for
a good year with bountiful harvests. Then came May and abrupt
changes to the climate that nobody had anticipated. Just as seedlings
were poking through the ground, trying to capture the Sun’s warming
rays, fog was settling across the region. Gray skies were blocking the