Chain Of Food

Chain Of Food
by John Forster & Tom Chapin
© 2011 Limousine Music Co. & The Last Music Co. (ASCAP)

Life on earth needs fuel to run
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)
We get our fuel from the light of the sun.
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)
How to use that sunlight energy
To power the likes of you and me?
Well that's the trick you're about to see.
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)

And the geniuses behind this dance
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)
Are the quiet heroes we call plants.
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)
And the trick that only plants can do
Is mix water, dirt and CO2
With sunlight and convert 'em to
The great stuff we call food.

So think of a leaf or a tree or a shrub
(Chain, chain, chain)
As sunlight that's been changed to grub!
(Chain, chain, chain)

So an antelope eats a leafy plant
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)
'Cause the plant makes stuff
That an antelope can't.
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)
So the antelope gets fuel to run
Through the chemical trick the plant has done
With light waves shining from the sun.
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)

And all those plants the antelopes eat
(Chain, chain, chain)
Become delicious antelope meat
(Chain, chain, chain)
To feed the next link in the chain,

Hear a hungry lion roar (Roar!)
An antelope's what she's looking for.
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)
That solar power she's gonna score
Was stored as plant, then herbivore
And now it'll fuel this carnivore.
(Talkin' 'bout the chain of food.)

So that's how light waves from our star
(Chain, chain, chain)
Can turn up at the salad bar
(Chain, chain, chain)
And out there where the wild things are.

This song appears on Tom Chapin's Give Peas A Chance CD.

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