Food
From Envirowiki
Food is a basic means of gathering nutrients and chemical energy for all living organisms. Humans eat a large range of foods, from fungi and plant matter (leaves, fruits, seeds, roots, etc.) to animals - basically anything living that isn't poisonous (and some stuff that is poisonous), canbe and is eaten.
Most animals including humans either forage from food (mostly plant eating herbivores), or hunt other animals (carnivores), or both (omnivores). A few species, including humans, and some ants farm other species for food.
Humans need a balanced diet including carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and vitamins and trace elements such as iron and zinc. Such a diet is relatively easy to maintain in the affluent west, but even so, due largely to advertising and misinformation, large sectors of the population have diet-related disorders due to unbalanced diets, too much junk food, and not enough excercise.
Other food related problems in the modern world include, or are related to pesticide (insecticide and herbicide) residues, genetic engineering, food irradiation, and industrial farming brings other problems such as erosion, a large global warming contribution through methane production and soil degradation, and workers' rights issues.
