Updated - 02 Jan 21

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The biblical story of Cain and Abel provides a very interesting, if brief, story about our ancestors at the beginning of what is now known as the Neolithic Era. 

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The story, found in Genesis 4, recounts how Abel, a ‘keeper of sheep’ and Cain, a ‘worker of the ground’, both brought sacrifices before God. 

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Abel brought the best of his flock and ‘of their fat portions’ (suet or kidney fat) and his sacrifice received approval from God.  It is interesting that this emphasis on animal fat corelates very well with the research of Dr Miki Ben-Dor, a leading paleoanthropologist, who has presented extensive evidence that humans are facultative carnivores uniquely dependent on high fat intake for optimum health.

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Cain, in contrast, brought veggies and God was not pleased with the offer.

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Long story short Cain, in a fit of resentful anger, killed Abel and subsequently was banished by God.

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Interestingly, the prognosis for Cain included being ‘cursed’ from the ground and that eventually the ground would ‘no longer yield to you its strength’ and he would end up ‘a fugitive and wanderer on the earth’.  This ancient prophesy preceded a pattern of cropland agriculture replacing natural ecosystems, and then failing when the soil was depleted forcing the society dependent on it to move on in search of new land.  This cycle has repeated itself for over 20 civilizations throughout history, as covered in Rebecca D. Costa’s ‘The Watchman’s Rattle’. 

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It is only in the last 60-70 years, with the advent of regenerative agriculture and adaptive multi-paddock grazing of ruminant livestock, that this ‘curse of Cain’ shows signs of being able to be reversed.

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Critically, it is the successors of Abel, ‘the keeper of sheep’ who are leading this revolution in agriculture.  The discovery that complex biodiverse grassland ecosystems and herds of grazing herbivores are mutually dependent on each other for healthy ecosystem function is at the heart of an ancient prophesy dating back thousands of years.