Then the first level consumers come and eat the plants. They then absorb 10% of the energy before being eaten by the second level consumers who then only absorb 10% of that energy. So by the time that the second level consumer has eaten, he has only recieved 1% of the energy from the producer. Producers. - Producers are organisms that capture sunlight energy and store it as food. They then use the sun's energy to turn water and CO2 into food molecules by using photosynthisis.