I see infographics, and more broadly, visual art as critical tools in conveying complex information quickly and accurately to large audiences. Psychologically, our minds are not optimized to contextualize numbers (perhaps because numbers are purely abstractions) and so merely writing about an issue is hardly effective when the goal is to get people to understand the significance of a number.

This tree of vegetable varieties is a great attempt to convey such abstract concepts; such as the reduction in the variety of plants that we can grow. Moreover, it imparts a powerful take-away message without requiring the viewer to actually remember any numbers.