1. Plants For Food and Fibre
People and Plants

2. How do humans use plants? Only to eat???
Plants provide fibre, which humans use for clothing, paper and building materials
Fibre is the tissues of plants from the stem, leaves, seeds or roots.

3. Plants in the Environment
What can plants do?
Produce oxygen and use up carbon dioxide
One hectare of trees can remove over 10 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Plants are also the basis for most food chains
Plants provide shelter
Plants clean and filter water
Plant roots help keep soil in place

4. Nearly 75% of the world’s food supply is based on seven major crops:
Plants for Food
Nearly 75% of the world’s food supply is based on seven major crops:

5. 1) Wheat

6. 2) Rice

7. 3) Maize (corn)

8. 4) Potatoes

9. 5) Barley

10. 6) Cassava

11. 7) Sorghum

12. Plants for Fibre
Much of today’s clothing comes from synthetic (manufactured) material such as polyester or nylon
However, plants still provide important fibre to make cloth
Cotton, hemp and flax are all natural fibres we use

13. Cotton Grown for centuries
Different than synthetic fibres in that it can absorb moisture
The world’s most important non-edible plant
Fibres come from the cotton seed that uses the fibres to move

14. Hemp Original material for blue jeans
Oldest cultivated fibre in the world
Benefits: produces 4 times more fibre than the same amount of trees
Ready to harvest in one year
Hemp paper lasts longer than wood fibre paper and can be recycled up to 7 times
Grow quickly, choke out weeds, not eaten by pests

15. Food and fibre crop grown in northern climates
Fibres taken from the stem and are 2-3 times stronger than cotton
Flax fibre is also used to make linen paper
Grown on the prairies for linseed oil which is used in paints and varnish and printing inks

16. Plants for Medicine
Many medicines contain ingredients made from plants
Over 7000 medicines are made from plants, including heart drugs, cancer medications, antibiotics and pain meds

17. For centuries it was known that the bark of the white willow tree eased pain
Scientists isolated the exact ingredient and now produce pain medications
Aspirin is one example

18. Opium poppies are the source of morphine, the most powerful pain medication
The morphine is found in the milky fluid of the poppy’s seed pod and also in the stems and leaves
Codeine is also found in the poppy

19. Quinine comes from the cinchona tree that grows in the humid forests of the South American Andes
Quinine is used as a prevention for malaria, a deadly disease carried by certain tropical mosquitoes
Until quinine, malaria killed about 2 million people a year
In 1944 scientists developed a way to produce synthetic quinine, but the malarial parasite has since developed a resistance to this quinine – natural quinine is still good!

20. Plants for Transportation and Construction
Did you know that a plant got you to school today?
Rubber is one of the most important plant products that people use.
When people figured out how to turn liquid rubber (latex) into a hard, yet flexible material, our world changed dramatically.
Natural rubber comes the Brazilian rubber tree, which is the only source of natural rubber
Most vehicle tires today use synthetic rubber made from coal and oil by-products

21. Plants have also influenced transportation on water.
Canoes made from tree – either a hollowed out red cedar or a birch bark canoe
Certain plants are also used to make lubricants for machinery parts on planes, trains and automobiles
Obviously plants are also used for construction all around the world

22. Plants for Fuel
If you use wood or coal to heat your home, you have plants to thank for it
Sugar in some plants can be turned into a type of liquid fuel called ethanol
Methanol is another type of fuel made from wood (also called wood alcohol)