No, eating a plant turns it into CO2. Our / animals' bodies burn the sugars (which were the store of C) into co2 and energy, using the original o2 produced by the plant to convert that co2 into those sugars.

It's more meaningful to reason about co2 storage in terms of area dedicated to plants, than the plants themselves.

Cutting them will indirectly release the carbon. Making plants into building materials or cabinetry keeps the carbon locked.

Though even cutting it to firewood has zero sum long-term CO2 balance as long as the forest itself sustains.

s/cutting/eating/ ?