Ge. 1:29 "I have given you every plant yielding seed ...and fruit yielding seed...for food" 1:30 "to every beast of the earth…I have given every green plant for food." What is the difference, if any, between the green plants for man vs. beast?
Answer
There are two obvious differences in the two verses. How much of a difference they make practically, I am not sure. First, man was told he could eat of all seed bearing plants (grains, grasses, fruit and nut trees, but not some plants like ivy). Animals, lacking the ability to discern between seed bearing plants and otherwise, are given all green plants including those that reproduce from cuttings or roots. The second difference is that animals are given green plants, but man does not have that restriction. He can eat mushrooms, for instance.
As I say, I’m not sure there is that much a practical difference. There are animals that eat non-green vegetation, for instance. Whether that distinction lasted beyond the point at which God allowed man and animals to eat flesh (Genesis 9:3) is not clear. In that verse, he only specifies that man was allowed the green plants. Because of that, I think there was no practical difference.