Plants make their own food
Unlike animals, plants do not hunt or graze β they build their food from simple raw materials.
Think about how you get energy: you eat food. Now think about a plant. It never moves to find a meal, yet it grows taller and stronger every week. So where does its food come from?
The answer is that a plant makes its own food. It takes simple raw materials β carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil β and, using light energy, builds them into a sugar called glucose. This process is called photosynthesis.
Because plants make their own food, we call them producers. Every food chain starts with a producer. Animals, including you, are consumers β we cannot make food, so we depend on producers.
Two ideas to hold onto:
- Photosynthesis is a chemical reaction β small molecules are joined into a bigger one.
- It needs energy, and that energy comes from light, usually sunlight.
Once you understand photosynthesis, you understand where almost all the energy in living things first comes from.
- Plants make their own food β they are producers.
- Raw materials are carbon dioxide and water.
- Light provides the energy for the reaction.
- Animals are consumers and depend on producers.