We couldn't have invented farming earlier, even if we'd tried. Now we face evidence that civilization itself is destabilizing the long run of good weather in which it has grown. Civilizations rise because they find new ways to exploit natural and human resources, to tip the balance between culture and nature. They feed on their local ecology until it is degraded, thriving only while they grow. When they can no longer expand, they fall victim to their own success.
Civilization is a pyramid scheme.
The cusp between rise and fall is a matter of scale, of demand outrunning natural limits. Nomadic bands of hunters and gatherers could live in the Near Eastern marshes and floodplains indefinitely. Then, slowly, they began to plant and reap. All went well for a long time, bringing surplus and stability to food supply. On lands where a few once roamed, thousands toiled in wheat fields.