Sowing the seeds of modern civilisation

Plants form the basis for almost all life on Earth, as living organisms in their own right or as food for animals. By
catching solar energy, unlike animals, they actually add to the Earth’s net store of energy. The unique process of
photosynthesis which converts atmospheric carbon dioxide, the main ‘greenhouse gas’, into carbohydrates via a
solar energy-driven process produces the biomass needed by most living organisms.
When people first started cultivating plants in the Middle East some ten thousand years ago, it profoundly altered
their way of life. With the birth of agriculture, humanity moved away from the hand-to-mouth existence of the
hunter-gatherer and was able to store food for leaner times. No longer needing to chase their food, people were
able to abandon nomadic life and live in settled communities, sowing the seed for modern civilisation.
Today, plants are used not only as food for humans and feed for cattle, but as industrial raw materials. They are
also valuable sources of vitamins, antioxidants, oils, fibres and carbohydrates. They provide the ingredients for
most drugs and are a major traditional energy resource. The petroleum that keeps modern society ticking is also
of plant origin, while modern biofuels promise to reduce the pollution caused by fossil fuels.
Rising populations and living standards are not only straining the world’s food production capacity, they have led
to the increasing use of non-renewable resources and synthetic materials, such as plastics (a petroleum
product). This has meant that more greenhouse gases – such as carbon dioxide – are being pumped into the
atmosphere, contributing to climate change. It has also meant that the world is producing waste faster than the
Earth can break it down. Environmental concerns and finite supplies of fossil fuels are making biomaterials –
which can be broken down easily by natural forces – and biofuels attractive alternatives.