A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested for food or profit. By use, crops fall into six categories: food crops, feed crops, fiber crops, oil crops, ornamental crops, and industrial crops. Food crops, such as fruits, vegetables, and grains, are harvested to feed the more than 7 billion people on Earth. Climate, accessibility, trade, and culture are just some of the geographic factors that influence the popularity of a food crop in a given region. Grains, such as corn, wheat, and rice, are the world’s most popular food crops. In fact, these crops are often the basis for food staples. A food staple is a food that makes up the dominant part of a population’s diet. Food staples are eaten regularly—even daily—and supply a major proportion of a person’s energy and nutritional needs. Cassava, maize, plantains, potatoes, rice, sorghum, soybeans, sweet potatoes, wheat, and yams are some of the leading food crops around the world. These layers of our MapMaker Interactive display how many tons of these crops were produced per country as an average from 2010 to 2012. As you look through the different map layers on food crops, keep in mind that these crops don’t always feed people near where they are grown. Crops grown in one place might be exported to another, and where those crops were grown from 2010 to 2012 does not reflect where they were produced historically or even where they might grow in the future. A map, among many things, is a temporary portrait of a changing world.