Read Paragraph 7 from the passage. The first people to produce food were probably women. Well before 8000 B. C. in the Middle East, women learned to cut the wheat and barley grasses growing wild along the hillsides. Next, the women made an important discovery. They learned that if they let some of the ripe grain seeds drop to the ground, more grasses would grow in that place the next year. Eventually, the women learned that they could sow those seeds in fields where such grasses did not usually grow. Using sharp-pointed digging sticks, they could break the ground and plant the seeds. With plentiful water and good luck, they could harvest the life-giving grain to make bread or porridge at season’s end.

What is the author's purpose for including details about producing food in this paragraph?

to explain that women played an integral role in food production

to highlight the early development of agricultural tools

to show that farming grew out of a series of small discoveries

to describe the diet of people during the Neolithic period