Gosh, yes. The ancient Egyptians used grain as a store of wealth and I think that was wheat or a similar grain. That would have been up to 5000 years ago and I believe rice was farmed before other grains ever were?
I often bump heads with my mother on utopian ideals.
"But if everyone just..."
"do you really think everyone will?"
"But if they did..."
"But they aren't going to and you can't control that, so there's no point getting your hopes up or getting worked up about it"
It would be a darn boring world if we all thought the same anyway.
I always think of the saying, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" when it comes to communism. I'm not even sure they start out evil, but it doesn't matter how good your intentions are, when you crave the power enough to want to enact them you're going to end up corrupted.