Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 3, Number 4, DeMotte, Jasper County, 8 June 1933 — How Food Is Obtained From Natural Elements [ARTICLE]

How Food Is Obtained From Natural Elements

Green plants take water from the soil, and carbon dioxide from the air --materials which have no food value, or energy content--and, with the assistance of energy provided by sunlight, put these materials together to form sugar, the fundamental food substance. Thus they lock up in the sugar some of the energy of sunlight. The green plant can then change sugar into other classes of food (fats, proteins) by the addition of certain elements secured from the soil (nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus). The independent green plants thus provide the food supply for all of the other (dependent) organisms, i. e., animals and nongreen plants (bacteria, molds, mushrooms). Coal consists of the transformed bodies of ancient plants. Hundreds of millions of years ago these green plants locked up some of the energy of sunlight in their own bodies, and this same energy is released (in the form, of heat) when coal is burned today. Practically all of the energy that man or any other living organism uses today can be traced back to the sun.