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Revision as of 00:21, 8 January 2018 by Keenan (talk | contribs) (plant-based diet section)
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Welcome to Eat Every Plant, a free encyclopedia of every edible plant and documentation of one man's quest to eat every edible plant.

Overview

"Encyclopedia of every edible plant" means the content should be encyclopedic in nature, similar to Wikipedia articles, but focused entirely on the use of plants as food. So, while the Wikipedia article on a certain plant might have sections on evolutionary history, ecology, uses including construction material, fuel, ornamental plants, etc., none of those sections would be present in the Eat Every Plant article. Instead there could be sections on its history as a foodstuff, recipes, nutritional information, and where to find it in a form suitable for eating.

The secondary, non-encyclopedic purpose of this site is to track users' individual progress toward the goal of eating every edible plant - or at least as many as possible. Currently this is done through categories - see #Categories for Keenan for examples.

How to participate

This is a wiki, meaning anyone with an account can edit it and the changes show up immediately. Automatic account creation is currently turned off, but to request an account simply email Keenan (his name is Keenan Pepper and his email address is just his name at gmail).

Categories for Keenan

Synoptic taxonomy

Plants

Single organisms

Green plants

Seed plants

Flowering plants

Eudicots


Asterids including chili, coffee, lettuce, olive, potato, sunflower, tea, tomato...



Caryophyllales including beet, buckwheat, chard, nopal, rhubarb, sorrel, spinach...



Rosids including apple, cacao, cassava, citrus, cucumber, grape, legumes, mango, peanut...



Other eudicots including currant, lotus, poppy...



Monocots


Asparagales including asparagus, garlic, onion, saffron...



Commelinids including banana, cereal grains, coconut, date, ginger, oil palm, pineapple...



Other monocots including Acorus, konjac, pandan, taro, yam...




Magnoliids including avocado, bay laurel, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg...



Austrobaileyales including star anise and Schisandra chinensis



Nymphaeales including Brasenia and Nuphar advena




Conifers including pine nuts, monkey puzzle, juniper...



Cycads, some of which have inner pith or "sago" which can be made edible



Ginkgo, which has edible seeds



Gnetophyta, including Gnetum gnemon or melinjo, and Ephedra which can be brewed into a tea




Ferns, many of which have edible "fiddleheads"



Green algae including sea lettuce...




Brown algae including kelp, kombu, wakame...



Red algae including dulse, limu kohu, nori...




Lichens, which contain a plant-like symbiont and some of which are edible - Parmotrema perlatum and rock tripe



Benefits of a plant-based diet

While it is not the primary focus of this project to persuade people to eat more plant foods and less animal ones, the primary authors feel it is their ethical duty to at least mention the many benefits of a plant-based diet. See Plant-based diet on Wikipedia, and One Green Planet, for basic introductions to this subject. Some important things to note are:

  • Even if you have no intention at all of becoming a strict vegan, you can still make relatively small/easy changes to your diet that have a huge positive impact.
  • Even if you have no ethical qualms about raising animals for food, you should think twice about the huge consumption of resources (water and energy) that meat entails. For example, in response to a drought one might think of decreasing water usage by taking shorter showers, or turning off the water while brushing one's teeth, but these are insignificant when compared to the amount of water used in animal agriculture - for example, a pound of beef is equivalent to a 370-minute shower.