Which are the ‘Top Three’ most important / influential plants of power today (and I don't necessarily mean by the amount or value produced).  Justify and explain your answer.

This is a very tough question. Myriad arguments can be made for the case of any plant or type of cultivation. Some may argue the plant that served as the foundation of prosperity in the colonial Americas: tobacco. Others may argue for major food sources like wheat or rice. Their existence is crucial to society as we know it and even more significant in historical terms. But if one were to argue purely in terms of the modern day, I must assert that cannabis, palm, and soy beans are the most influential plants of power.

A recent and ongoing source of mass controversy and debate, the cannabis plant and the legality of its consumption are now relevant issues in modern American voting as well as on the international front. Its cultivation certainly has not affected the world’s population in the way tobacco or spices have, but it is globally known and consumed and a leading factor of entire black market industries. Before it reached the Mexican drug cartels or the Danish pushers in Christianhavn, the cannabis plant was used for its oils as well as a fiber (hemp). Today it is consumed in recreational and medicinal practices. When looked at recreationally, the common perception is it is neither good nor entirely bad for one’s health, but often time a method of pain mitigation. This is large topic of contention around the world today, but there are now four states in the U.S. that regulate the plant as a legal substance similarly to alcohol and a handful of others that maintain it for medicinal status.  

Heavily regulated medicinal cannabis today
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            The palm oil industry is also a major source of contention around the world today for its immense impacts on environment and industry. A now booming industry in Indonesia, the palm oil cultivation is a leading cause of the region’s deforestation in national forests. The loss of trees and the method in which they are cut down for the industry leads to habitat loss for wildlife and eventually a terrible loss of biodiversity, soil and water degradation, as well as emission of greenhouse gasses. The product itself is rampant in foods in developed countries, adding saturated fats to many food products leading to adverse health effects. The demand for palm oil is increasing and heated activism is arising between major producers and nongovernmental organizations.

Greenpeace protest of palm oil
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            Soybeans may be argued as such power plant due to its nutritional benefits for humans. A bean contains all of the “necessary” amino acids. Not only may be the beans be used as an efficient fertilizer, but when held up against the issue of food security, such a nutrient-packed crop may provide alleviation to a growing demand for certain food products. The urgency of the food security problem that the world faces is what brings this crop to the most powerful of modern plants.

Soybean product
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