Revolutionary is one cutting food plants (8)
I believe the answer is:
narcissi
'plants' is the definition.
The answer is an example.
'revolutionary is one cutting food' is the wordplay.
'revolutionary' says the letters should be written backwards (letters revolve around).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'cutting' indicates putting letters inside (some letters cut their way into a word).
'food' becomes 'scran' (I've seen this before).
'i' going inside 'scran' is 'sicran'.
'is'+'sicran'='issicran'
'issicran' written backwards gives 'NARCISSI'.
(Other definitions for narcissi that I've seen before include "Bulbous plants with yellow or white flowers" , "Plants of a genus which includes daffodils" , "Scan iris for the spring flowers" , "Captain in Moby Dick" , "Scan iris for other flowers, oddly" .)