Plants & people

What do we eat today? How does it affect the environment?

People living in modern society are largely disconnected from the food they consume in terms of what plants they are eating (or using for tea, cold drinks, spices, etc.). They are surprisingly unaware of:

• parts of the plant used
• what the plant looks like
• its species/family
• its geographical region of origin
• where and how it was grown
• type of fertilizers and or pesticides used
• its processing
• its transport chain (cooling, packaging, chemical treatment)
• food waste
• embedded energy and water resources (grey energy, virtual water)
• "problem plants" such as the oil palm
• etc.

Video: Raising awareness of plant blindness (botany.one)

Plants are amazing organisms. They make up around 80% of all biomass on Earth... and support humans and other animals by providing shelter, oxygen, and food. Despite this, many people have a tendency to overlook plants, a phenomenon known as “plant blindness”... , either because of a lack of knowledge about these organisms, their visual homogeneity, their generally non‐threatening nature or the lack of visual cues such as movement or rapid changes ... Plants tend to be underrepresented in biology curricula despite being indispensable to all other life on Earth and are hugely prevalent in the biosphere; plants comprise up to ~450 gigatonnes of carbon (Gt C) of the total 550 Gt C of all the Earth's biomass versus just 2 Gt C for animals, most of which is marine life... Surveys have demonstrated that students prefer to learn about animals, and find them easier to recall than plants...   In: Overcoming plant Blindness in science, education and society (PlantsPeoplePlanet, 1 July 2019). Source: Overcoming plant blindness in science, education, and society (nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com)

Not only is our planet rapidly losing the biodiversity of wild plants and other organisms, but also that of our traditional crop plants, as modern agriculture focusses on a few cultivated species and varieties, largely driven by economic factors. Recent efforts however are retrieving wild relatives of cultivated plants to deal with a changing climate and increasing numbers of pests and diseases.

Plants are crucial for human survival, providing nutrition, warmth, clothing, and shelter, as well as the air that we breathe. ... We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate, which will have unknown but potentially devastating consequences for the Earth’s planetary systems. Before we can conserve biodiversity, however, we must understand it, both as a concept and by performing an assessment of the diversity of life on our planet. Plants perform a diverse array of ecosystem processes, which provide us with a huge number of ecosystem services. We have domesticated a relatively tiny number of plant species to better optimize some of the products they provide us, including food, fiber, and fuel, but our relationships even with these few species are complex. ... Conserving plant biodiversity is vital for ourselves and for the rest of the biosphere, but plant scientists cannot achieve this alone. Highlighting the importance of biodiversity is key to attract public support and collaboration, enabling us to better map diversity and understand the impacts of our local behaviors on a global scale.  In: People and Plants: The unbreakable bond (Plants, People, Planet 2019, (nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com)