In the easy and medium games, I manage to get science tech first so they can get the other tech points faster, but that is on the premise that you don't go over-expanding your population. Usually though I have to do it on 1/2 speed because the tech points rack up at the same speed as normal or 2x, but they eat less often so the existing food lasts longer... they also don't age as quickly.
On the hard level I did have to get level 2 farming first, but then I was still able to get science 3 first and then farming 3. Getting the extra 50,000 points is quite fast with the speed of science tech kicking in