Transcripción 3/1/2026, 3:41:01 p.m.

Apuntes

• Plants and People: Section Summary • Plants have many key roles in human society, providing food, medicines, building materials, and energy. • The human food supply is based on the cultivation of relatively few species of plants. • The use of biofuels has environmental, economic, and social costs and benefits. • Plants provide a number of ecosystem services. • Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Imagine a world without plants. You may immediately think about edible plants: the fruits, vegetables, and grains you eat every day. But you wouldn’t have meat if farm animals didn’t have plants to eat. In addition, many of the building materials in the room around you were made from plant products. Some of them are obvious—wooden benches and cedar shingles, for example. Other plant products, such as glues, resins, and paints, are less easy to spot. Textiles, packaging, and medicines also come from plants. Even the oxygen you are breathing is produced by plants as a waste product of photosynthesis. • Canada’s Food Crops: Early humans collected wild seeds and fruits for food. Ag...