First farmers had diverse origins, DNA shows

[Igel]

4. The initial change-over was probably harsh.

When you transfer to agriculture versus herding you're suddenly stuck in one place with others. Disease becomes a problem. You wind up being sedentary part of the year. Your body has to adjust to a lot of starch, so diabetes becomes a serious killer.

It's probably not an accident that the oldest town we know of is dates to short after the domestication of some founder crops in N. Syria. The town was already fortified and had been burned. In the ruins and the area around the town are a lot of fired clay balls--projectiles for slings to hurl. In other words, the town had agriculture and prospered. Another nearby town may have attacked it or, more probable (I think) herders and hunter-gatherers grouped together to take what they no doubt believed was rightfully theirs and had been stolen from them.