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Environmental and Land-based production, systems and services - Level 1 Unit 2
Products from Plants
What use are plants?
Plants are 'boring'!
This is often a view expressed by students! Hopefully after studying their uses, adding to your knowledge of plants, and reinforcing what they should already know of their importance (photosynthesis, food chains etc) you will hopefully review this view!
A quote from David Attenbourgh springs to mind. He says people often ask him when he 'found' his interest in wildlife and nature - to which he says he replies "When did you loose yours?" referring to the fact that most young children have a fascination with creepy, crawlies and nature - which many loose as teenagers, and then 'find' again as adults!
Products from plants can be categorised as follows:
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Plants for Food
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Plants for Fuel Shelter and Paper
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Plants for Animal Feed, Forage & Bedding
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Plants for Clothing
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Plants for Pharmaceuticals and Medicines
Plants for Food
Some examples of foods we get from plants
Plants we use to get food from can be grouped as such: cereal crops, fruit crops, vegetable crops, drinks, herbs, spices, flavourings, animal feed and forages. The chart below shows perecentage of arable land taken by the main crops in the UK - source defra 2009.
Agricultural Crops in UK 2009
Source defra
Note this is just of land cropped - agricultural land is a different factor which is given in the table below and includes land under permanent grass etc. More of this on Animal Production Systems page. Figures are also given for other countries by way of comparison.
World Land Use
| Rank | Country | Cultivated land (km2) |
Cultivated land (%) |
Arable land (%) |
Permanent crops (%) |
Other lands (%) |
Total land area (km2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | World | 17,298,900 |
11.61 |
10.57 |
1.04 |
88.38 |
149,000,000 |
| 1 | United States | 1,669,302 |
18.22 |
18.01 |
0.21 |
81.78 |
9,161,923 |
| 2 | India | 1,535,060 |
51.63 |
48.83 |
2.8 |
48.37 |
2,973,193 |
| 3 | China | 1,504,350 |
16.13 |
14.86 |
1.27 |
83.87 |
9,326,410 |
| 4 | Rusia | 1,192,300 |
7.28 |
7.17 |
0.11 |
92.72 |
16,377,742 |
| 5 | Brazil | 661,299 |
7.82 |
6.93 |
0.89 |
92.18 |
8,456,510 |
| 6 | Canada | 474,681 |
5.22 |
4.57 |
0.65 |
94.78 |
9,093,507 |
| 7 | Australia | 471,550 |
6.19 |
6.15 |
0.04 |
93.81 |
7,617,930 |
| 8 | Ukraine | 333,847 |
55.3 |
53.8 |
1.5 |
44.7 |
603,700 |
| 14 | France | 227,155 |
35.49 |
33.46 |
2.03 |
64.51 |
640,053 |
| 20 | South Africa | 157,246 |
12.89 |
12.1 |
0.79 |
87.11 |
1,219,912 |
| 43 | United Kingdom | 56,604 |
23.43 |
23.23 |
0.2 |
76.57 |
241,590 |
| 106 | Ireland | 11,608 |
16.85 |
16.82 |
0.03 |
83.15 |
68,890 |
Notes on Table:
Arable land is a land cultivated for crops like wheat, maize, and rice that are replanted after each harvest; permanent crops land is a land cultivated for crops like citrus, coffee, and rubber that are not replanted after each harvest; this also includes land under flowering shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees, and vines, but excludes land under trees grown for wood or timber. Other lands are any lands not arable or under permanent crops; this includes permanent meadows and pastures, forests and woodlands, built-on areas, roads, barren land, etc.
The Grasses
The Grasses (Gramineae) form one of the largest plant families. They sustain grazing animals on the savannas, prairies, steppes and manmade pastures of the world. These animals provide us with milk, butter, cheese, meat, hides and wool.
Cereals belong to the grasses family and in the form of: rice. wheat, millet and rye, provide the basis for the daily diet of many millions of people. Other cereals such as maize and barley are used for livestock production.
The video above gives some examples of the crops we use for food etc. Further details of how these crops are grown and the food produced can be found by using the crops menu to the left. They include crops such as
Each page on these crops includes detailed videos showing how they and grown and then processed into food.
Plants for Fuel, Shelter & Paper
Crops for Biofuel or Renewable Energy.
This use of plants in this role is probably as long lived as that for food! The video shows some more 'modern' variations on these traditional uses:
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Biofuel - crops grown to produce Biomass from which a wide range of fuels can made. In the Uk this includes:
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Biodiesel - made from vegetable oils (mainly Oilseed Rape in UK), animal fats and recycled chip oil.
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Bioethanol - an alcohol made by fermenting the sugar component of plant materials. A large plant is due to open on the Humber which will use wheat.
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Biomass - crops grown as a renewable energy source. Biomas is biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms, such as wood, waste, (hydrogen) gas, and alcohol fuels. Biomass is commonly plant matter grown to generate electricity or produce heat. The main plants grown for this in UK are:
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Coppice Willow
- Miscanthus or Elephant Grass.
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Plants for Animal Feed, Forage & Bedding
Plants for Livestock use.
Plants for Clothing
These include the following materials / plants:
Linseed / Flax Plants
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Cotton,
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Flax,
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Hemp,
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Sisal,
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Synthetic fabrics such as rayon.
Of these few are grown in the UK. Flax also called Linseed is grown, but for the seeds which are used to extract Linseed oil used in paints and on Cricket Bats!
Plants for Pharmaceuticals and Medicines
Borage
Several crops are grown in this country, although they are not considered major crops. They include:
High Erucic Acid Rapeseed (HEAR) - This is grown the same as nora ml Oilseed Rape, but contains a different oil which has uses in industry.
Borage - is the richest natural source of Gamma Linoleic Acid (GLA), which has several medicinal uses.
Evening Primrose - also a source of Gamma Linoleic Acid (GLA)
Useful Web sites
BioMatNet Project supported by European Commission in the area of Biological Materials for Non-Food Products
This is a useful resource which gives lists of plants under different categories of use - throughout the EU, so not all apply to the UK.
Kings Ground Breaking Crop Solutions
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