Read the text and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

Food chains

Each living thing can be a part of different food chains. Living things can be producers or consumers. Producers make their own food. For example, many plants are in the producers’ group as they use energy from the sun, water and nutrients from the soil. Consumers, on the other hand, don’t make their own food. Some eat producers or other consumers, such as animals, while others eat both. For example, farm animals like cows, chickens and pigs eat corn, grass, and hay because they cannot make food for themselves like many plants do.

A food chain is the sequence of who eat whom in an ecosystem. For instance, the sun makes energy for the grass, which gets eaten by a zebra, which gets eaten by a lion. Or, the grass gets eaten by a cricket, which gets eaten by a snake, which gets eaten by an owl. These are all examples of food chains.

Food chains show how all living things depend on each other. For example, we as consumers drink fruit juice made from a plant or producer. We also consume dairy products such as milk and cheese, which come from other consumers like cows and sheep. So producers and consumers are interdependent.

There are many food chains in the various habitats on Earth. Animals that eat other animals are called predators, and the animals they eat are called prey. Consumers are divided into three categories: herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. A herbivore only eats plants, an omnivore eats plants and meat, and a carnivore only eats meat.