What is the difference between a producer and a consumer?

• A. Producers eat other organisms; consumers make their own food
• B. Producers make their own food; consumers eat other organisms
• C. Producers decompose matter; consumers photosynthesize
• D. Consumers produce oxygen; producers consume it

Answer: (B)

In ecosystems, the important difference is who can make their own food and who must eat other organisms for energy. Producers, like plants and algae, use sunlight to build their own sugars through photosynthesis, turning light into chemical energy. This makes them the start of the food chain because they supply energy to all other living things. Consumers, on the other hand, cannot make their own food; they obtain energy by eating plants or other animals.

That’s why this statement best fits what producers and consumers do: producers make their own food; consumers eat other organisms. For contrast, the other ideas mix up roles—for example, decomposition is done by decomposers, producers don’t decompose or rely on others for food, and oxygen is released by producers during photosynthesis, while consumers use oxygen.