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You and the Food Chain By Cindy Grigg

What's your favorite food? Where does it come from? Let's take pizza for example. Pizza has a crust that is made of flour. Flour comes from wheat, a plant. Why is part of a plant good to eat? It all begins with the sun.

Plants can make their own food using sunlight. Plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to make their own food in a process we call photosynthesis. The plant uses most of the energy it makes - about ninety percent. The other ten percent that is not needed by the plant is stored for later. People and animals eat plants to get this stored energy. It may be stored in the plant's roots, stems, leaves, or seeds. Plants are the primary producers in a food chain. A food chain shows how food energy is passed from plants to animals.

You are an animal. Animals cannot make their own food. All animals are consumers , because they must consume, or eat, to get energy to live. Some animals eat only plants. They are called herbivores. Some animals eat other animals. Some animals eat both plants and animals. They are called omnivores. Most people are omnivores.

Pizza starts with wheat flour to make the crust. Flour is made from grinding wheat grains (seeds). Energy is stored in the wheat seeds. People grind wheat to make flour. Then flour is used to make all kinds of different foods. One of these is pizza crust. We usually put a tomato sauce on pizza that may have other plant parts in it to add flavor. Basil, oregano, and other seasonings for pizza come from plants, and so do the tomatoes for the sauce.

If you put meat on your pizza, you are a carnivore. Carnivores are animals that eat meat or other animals. You may like pepperoni, hamburger, sausage, chicken, or ham on your pizza. All these come from the flesh of animals like pigs, cows, and chickens. These animals got their stored energy by eating plants. They ate and used ninety percent of the energy they took in while they were alive. About ten percent of the energy was stored in the animals' tissues. Carnivores eat animal tissue to get the stored energy.

You are part of a food chain. At the bottom of the food chain are plants. Wheat (flour) and tomatoes (sauce) are some of the plants that you eat directly. If you eat hamburger pizza, you are eating part of a cow. The cow got its energy by eating plants like grass and corn. Since nothing will eat you (we hope!), you are the top of the food chain.

You and the Food Chain Questions

1. What is the definition of a consumer? A. animals that must eat food for energy B. animals that eat the meat of other animals C. something that makes its own food D. animals that eat both plants and animals Name Date

2. What are omnivores? A. animals that must eat food for energy B. something that makes its own food C. animals that eat both plants and animals D. animals that eat the meat of other animals 3. What are producers? A. animals that eat both plants and animals B. animals that must eat food for energy C. animals that eat the meat of other animals D. something that makes its own food 4. Name a producer.

5. What does a food chain show?

6. A water snake eats frogs and small fish. It is ______. A. a producer B. an omnivore C. a carnivore D. an herbivore 7. A cow eats grass, corn, or grains like wheat and oats. A cow is ______. A. an omnivore B. an herbivore C. a producer D. a carnivore 8. A person who does not eat meat is ______. A. a carnivore B. a producer C. an herbivore D. an omnivore Name Date

Write a paragraph that answers the first questions in the story: What's your favorite food? Where does it come from?

Describe, in your own words, what a food chain is. Give an example of a food chain.