Peak Farmland
Who needs some good news? I do.An environmental program out of Rockefeller University in New York proposes that the planet has reached a plateau for what it calls "Peak Farmland," that is, the amount of space required to grow a sufficient amount of food. And here's the good news: we have reached this point not because we have depleted all of our arable land, as long feared, but because crop yields have risen and population growth has slowed.
And there's more. The Program for the Human Environment says that this global achievement allows for 370 million acres of land to be converted back to natural conditions (read: forests) by 2060. That's roughly the size of 10 Iowas quilted together.
Iowa should take the lead on this. Take a healthy chunk of its land devoted to agriculture, much of which no longer serves family-based communities, or even healthy diets, but rather the corporate agri-giants and the methamphetamine trade (let's clear out a few sub-divisions too, while we're at it), and start this conversion process in earnest. Let's devote more space to human recreation and healthy, natural growth for all living things. Stop tilling and we'd be cutting a break to our strained and polluted waterways, and boosting our overall quality of life.
Great job, people. We did it. Resources for all if we find a way to share them properly. Don't screw things up now. Farm in harmony with nature, keep eating less and less meat, and absolutely keep tying on those condoms.
posted by CM @ 8:44 PM
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