Where does the food we eat come from?

Food comes from plants, animals, farms, oceans, and the people and machines that move it to us. At the start of nearly every meal is a plant using sunlight, water, and air to make sugar, which then feeds people directly or feeds the animals people eat.

A dinner plate can be read like a set of clues. Rice hints at flooded fields, cheese at milk from a cow, fish at tiny sea life eaten by bigger swimmers, and fruit at a tree or vine that once stood under open sky.