Energy follows carbon

The "living world" can't function without energy. The storage of energy in all living things always involves carbon. The sole source of all energy is the sun (solar power). Plants are a store of energy, and this energy is stored in the more complex carbon compounds that are formed as a result of the photosynthesis process. The energy of the sun rearranges the atoms and the new carbon compounds contain more energy than the CO2 (carbon dioxide) form. It is the plants that store the energy of the sun for all other members of the two food chains to use. Everything is reliant on the energy of the sun, "which is why plants are critical to our very existence." Plants are how the energy of the sun becomes available to us. Without plants, life on earth as we know it would not exist. In the oceans, it is the plankton that stores the energy of the sun to pass on to other living things. Managing plants correctly is all about maximising the collection of energy.

To put the energy debate into the context of agriculture, remember that energy and life go hand in hand. The significance of this relationship is that all outputs of rural production are dependant on living things.

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