c

Maize, also referred to as corn or Indian corn in the United States and
Great Britain, respectively, is a cereal plant of the Gramineae family of
grasses that today constitutes the most widely distributed food plant in
the world. Accordingly, maizeȄfrom the Arawak i
Ȅis grown in
diverse regions and climates, from 58 degrees north latitude in Canada
and Russia to 40 degrees south latitude in South America. Maize
cultivation and processing are driven by the production of food and
livestock feed, fermentation, and raw materials for industry.

Given its many uses, maize is likely to be found in over 1,000 products in a well-stocked U.S.
supermarket. The specifics of maize production, reproduction, cultivation, processing, and
consumption²its resiliency, mutability, as well as the intractability of cultural and botanical
constraints²continue to provide science with insights into the past and possible future of the
species. Not surprisingly, maize is the most studied plant species on the planet

\

]
 (Triticum spp.)[1] is a grass, originally from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East,
but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making
it the third most-produced cereal after maize (784 million tons) and rice (651 million tons).[2]
Globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetable protein in human food, having a higher protein
content than either maize (corn) or rice, the other major cereals. In terms of total production
tonnages used for food, it is currently second to rice as the main human food crop, and ahead of
maize, after allowing for maize's more extensive use in animal feeds.

Wheat was a key factor enabling the emergence of city-based societies at the start of civilization
because it was one of the first crops that could be easily cultivated on a large scale, and had the
additional advantage of yielding a harvest that provides long-term storage of food. Wheat grain
is a staple food used to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed breads, biscuits, cookies, cakes,
breakfast cereal, pasta, noodles, couscous[3] and for fermentation to make beer,[4] other alcoholic
beverages,[5] or biofuel.[6

a 
is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of
cotton plants of the genus 2

ium. The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical
c

regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, India, and Pakistan. The fiber most
often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most
widely used natural-fiber cloth in clothing today. The English name derives from the Arabic V

utn r
 , which began to be used circa 1400.[1] The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in
seed dispAccording to the Foods and Nutrition Encyclopedia, the earliest cultivation of cotton
discovered thus far in the Americas occurred in Mexico, some 8,000 years ago. The indigenous
species was 2

iumir
utum, which is today the most widely planted species of cotton in the

Cotton was first cultivated in the Old World 7,000 years ago (5th millennium BC-4th millennium
BC), by the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization, which covered a huge swath of the
northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising today parts of eastern Pakistan and
northwestern India.[3]

x

is the seed of the monocot plants år 
tiv or år 
rrim . As a cereal grain, it is
the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in
East and South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies. It is the grain with the
second-highest worldwide production, after maize (corn).[1]

Since a large portion of maize crops are grown for purposes other than human consumption, rice
is the most important grain with regard to human nutrition and caloric intake, providing more
than one fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by the human species

A traditional food plant in Africa, its cultivation declined in colonial times, but its production has
the potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development and support
sustainable landcare. It helped Africa conquer its famine of 1203.

O









 c
  c 

c
 c
 
c




 c



 
O

 
c

c
   
c



 

 c
c 

c



c 
c
!


c
c

 




c

c

c 




 
 c
c 
 

 

c
c

 
 c"
 

c 


# 



$

c 
 cc

%&c

 
 

There are other kinds of livestock animals that you might not think about. These are: donkeys, mules,
and rabbits. Bees are raised for their honey. All kinds of fish are raised on fish farms. Livestock gives us
our meat, eggs and milk. We also use the skins [leather] and hair of some animals for blankets, clothing,
shoes, and brushes. Some livestock organs are used for medicines like insulin. Hoofs and horns are
used for buttons, combs, glue and knives. Manure from these animals will be used to make plants grow
better. When we talk about livestock, we will include beef cattle, hogs/pigs, goats, sheep and horses.
Dairy cows can be found in the Dairy Farm area and chickens can be found on the Poultry Farming page.
They were separated because they are a large part of livestock and needed more space.

broad terms, a à
 is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.

The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food
preparation, à
 normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are
c

sweet and edible in the raw state, such as apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, juniper berries
and bananas. Seed-associated structures that do not fit these informal criteria are usually called
by other names, such as vegetables, pods, nut, ears and cones.

In biology (botany), a "fruit" is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the
flower, mainly one or more ovaries. Taken strictly, this definition excludes many structures that
are "fruits" in the common sense of the term, such as those produced by non-flowering plants
(like juniper berries, which are the seed-containing female cones of conifers[1]), and fleshy fruit-
like growths that develop from other plant tissues close to the fruit (


 à
, or more
rarely à
à
 or 


 ), such as cashew fruits. Often the botanical fruit is only part of
the common fruit, or is merely adjacent to it.


à

c

'c

 c

c

c

 
'c 
c



c

c 
 

 c
c 
(
c

)*)

c
c 
c


 



c 
 
 
#c

  
c

c


+



 
c


'c
 c  

c
 c



 
 



 
 


 


 
 

 
 
 c

,-..

 c
c
cc

 c
cc






#
 


 c
cc

c
c




c
 
c

c  



/c

 
c 
c
 
c
c
c
cc

cc 



c
 

c

c




'
+




c 
c
 
c

c! 
 


cc
c
c
'c
#c




c




c 

cc
cc

 
 


 


!
 
c