Biology Now, 2e

Over millennia, farmers have saved seeds from crops that were easiest

to grow, process, or store, and have used those seeds and their offspring

year after year. The results of this domestication process are staple

crops we rely on today: corn, soybeans, wheat. Yet to feed a growing

human population, we’re going to have to look beyond what we’re familiar

with, to the smorgasbord of edible plants that pepper the planet.

Assessment available in

Food Banks

7 ,000

are cultivated or collected

by humans for food.

30

5

crops provide 95%

of the food energy

taken in by the world’s

human population.

cereal crops provide 60%

of the food energy taken in by

the world’s human population.

30,000

terrestrial plants are known to be edible.

Rice Maize Wheat Millet Sorghum