Food crops are intentionally grown for human or animal consumption, distinguishing them from wild edible vegetation and non-food crops. They must be intentionally planted and primarily used for food. Non-food crops are intentionally grown but not eaten, while wild plants cannot be intentionally grown or tended.
Food crops are plants that are intentionally grown with the primary purpose of being eaten by humans or animals. This definition separates a food crop from wild edible vegetation, grazing material and edible food used for other purposes. The vast majority of store-bought fruits, vegetables, and grain-based foods started out in this category. This constitutes one of the three major divisions of useful plants in growing, the other two being wild plants and non-food crops.
There are two basic criteria that differentiate food crops from other plants. The first is that a person must intentionally plant and/or care for them and the second is that they must be used primarily for food. Both of these factors are absolute requirements for the term.
The former is mainly used to separate food crops from edible wild crops. Basically, this criterion draws a line that says onions grown in a garden are a food crop but those harvested in the forest are a wild crop. The only gray area in this rule is based on growing and caring for a plant. If a person picked wild berries, they would be a wild crop; if that person cleared the weeds and built a fence around the same bushes, he might switch to a food crop.
The second important factor requires that the plant be used for food. If more than half of the useful material harvested by a plant is used to feed animals or humans, then the plant is food. The plant can undergo significant processing, such as creating corn syrup, without changing the denomination. This rule separates crops that aren’t eaten, such as tobacco, and plants that could be eaten, but aren’t used for food, such as corn that is used to make ethanol.
Farmers separate useful plants into three broad categories: food, non-food and wild. In addition to these three useful groups, there is one large non-useful group called nuisance plants, as well as several specialized groups. A nuisance plant is literally anything that isn’t useful and is growing in an area where a person doesn’t want it. This classification could cover everything from crabgrass to wild roses with equal accuracy.
The other two useful groups are heavily intertwined with food crops. Non-food crops share the first criterion but not the second. This means that people intentionally grow them, but don’t eat them. These plants could be anything from cotton to hemp to potatoes grown to be made into biopolymers. Wild crops can be food or non-food, but they cannot be intentionally grown or tended.
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