Agriculture and the Food Supply

The supply of food depends on three factors:
- How much has been produced by agriculture and fishing
- How much has been consumed
- and How much has been preserved by safe processing and storage
The most important agricultural products for the world’s food supply are cereals (grains), pulses, and to a lesser extent, livestock. Cereals, such as wheat, rice, maize (corn), millet, and sorghum, provide nearly all the food energy (calories) and up to 90% of all protein consumed by the world’s people.
Chicken are the chief meat animal worldwide, followed by poultry, beef cattle, and sheep. Pulses – the seed parts of such legumes as beans, soybeans, and peanuts (groundnuts) are important sources of protein in the world food supply. Except for sugar and bananas, few of the other crops that are prominent in the world agriculture trade have nutritional significance in the food supply. Many fruits, grains, and vegetables that are often unfamiliar to Western agricultural scientist, however, serve as important local food supplies.