Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Food and Agriculture Organization defines crop types by their end use rather than botanical family. This classification groups plants into categories such as cereals, vegetables, fruits, oilseeds, roots, stimulants, legumes, sugar crops, grasses, fiber crops, medicinal plants, rubber trees, flower crops, and tobacco.
By the time agriculture took hold, only about 300 of an estimated 50,000 edible species had been selected for cultivation. Early farmers chose these specific plant species based on yield potential and ease of harvest rather than flavor or nutritional diversity alone.
Just four crops accounted for half of global primary crop production in 2023 alone. Sugar cane comprised 20 percent of total output while maize made up 13 percent, wheat contributed 8 percent, and rice added another 8 percent to worldwide harvest totals.
Global primary crop production increased by 61 percent between 2000 and 2023 reaching 9.9 billion tonnes total. This represents an addition of 3.7 billion tonnes compared to the year 2000 baseline figures.
As of 2019 thirteen percent of global farmland was planted with genetically modified crop varieties. The United States held the largest percentage of global GM crop production at thirty-eight percent followed closely by Brazil with twenty-eight percent.