Cropland loss

CROPLAND LOSS
The area of grain land supporting each person on the planet has fallen to less than one sixth the size of a soccer field, according to Shrinking Fields, a study by the Worldwatch Institute. In the U.S., net losses of cropland between 1982 and 1992 covered an area the size of New Jersey. In China during the same period, at least 5 percent of the nation's cropland was lost to urban expansion and industrialization. Large expanses of Kazakhstan and Iran are also exhausted. . Main causes of shrinking cropland are urbanization, depletion or diversion of irrigation water, and degradation of agricultural lands, especially from severe erosion and salination. The shift to nonfood crops such as cotton, coffee, tobacco, corn for ethanol, and commodity crops for the affluent global market, were also cited as contributing factors. "If policymakers do not see cropland as a key strategic resource—no less important than oil reserves or armed forces—then they will not take steps to halt these losses or protect the quality of remaining farmland," the report concluded.
Source: Gary Gardner, Shrinking Fields (Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 1996)

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