2026-05-11 · percent of plant food energy
Three plants feed most calories
Rice, wheat, and maize dominate diets. Thousands of traditional varieties vanished from fields.
Most of humanity's plant calories come from just three crops. Rice, wheat, and maize supply about 60% of the energy we get from plant foods, FAO food balance data show — even as thousands of traditional varieties vanish from fields. Betting the world's plate on so few species keeps supplies plentiful, but leaves diets exposed to any shock that hits a staple.
1 cell = 0.1 percent of plant food energy (0.1% of crop calorie supply) · 1,000 cells
Context
The grid spans 100% of global plant food energy. Rice, wheat, and maize account for 60%; the remaining 40% is split across regions: Asia & Pacific 20.8%, Africa 11.2%, and the Americas 8%.
Shares reflect FAO food balance data for 2026. Behind the concentration is a yield story: better yields have been essential to feeding a growing population while curbing agriculture's land footprint, and Our World in Data argues the world has now passed 'peak agricultural land' after millennia of expansion.
The trade-off is resilience: with thousands of traditional varieties already gone from fields, three crops carry most of the load. Our World in Data flags Sub-Saharan Africa as the key frontier, where raising yields is central to cutting hunger, poverty, and biodiversity loss.
FAO food balance: big three ~60% of kcal from plants.
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Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2026-05-11-crop-diversity-loss