Arable Land

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"A soil is not a pile of dirt. It is a transformer, a body that organises raw materials into tissues. These are the tissues that become the mother to all organic life." ~William Bryant Logan
Arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. According to Future Directions International, "Land is absolutely essential to agriculture and therefore the relationship between levels of arable land and food security merits serious consideration. It is projected that by 2050 the world will have a total of nine billion mouths to feed, which represents an increase of around 40 percent on current levels. This will demand an additional billion tonnes of cereal and 200 million tonnes of meat to be produced annually by 2050. The question remains, however, does the world have enough arable land to provide food for a population of this size?" Every minute of every day, more than an acre of arable land in the United States is lost to development with more than 23 million acres of America’s agricultural land having been lost to development, which is an area the size of Indiana, from 1982 - 2007 and with over a million acres of farmland lost every year. Arable land scarcity is a result of a range of human and climatic factors, including population growth, climate change, land degradation, urban sprawl, deforestation, desertification, irrigation and unequal land distribution. There currently remains some 2.7 billion hectares of land with potential for crop production in the world, concentrated in South and Central American and Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the National Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, “Each human on earth lives off the farming equivalent of about a third of a football field today. Population growth and urbanization will shrink that available land base in half by 2050.” Learn more.
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How Much Soil Is There?

"Pretend that this apple is the planet Earth, round, beautiful, and full of good things. Notice its skin, hugging and protecting the surface.Water covers approximately 75% of the surface. Right away, cut the apple in quarters. Put three quarters (75%) aside." ~NASA | Click for source

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"The three quarters (75%) you just removed represents how much of the earth is covered with water - oceans, lakes, rivers, streams. What is left (25%) represents the dry land. 50% of that dry land is desert, polar, or mountainous regions where it is too hot, too cold or too high to be productive. So cut that dry land quarter in half and toss one piece away." ~NASA | Click for source

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"When 50% is removed, this is what is left. (12.5% of the original). Of that 12.5%, 40% is severely limited by terrain, fertility or excessive rainfall. It is too rocky, steep, shallow, poor or too wet to support food production. Cut that 40% portion away." ~NASA | Click for source

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"You are left with approximately 10% of the apple. Peel the skin from the tiny remaining sliver." ~NASA | Click for source

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"The remaining 10% (approximately*)- this small fragment of the land area - represents the soil we depend on for the world's food supply. This fragment competes with all other needs - housing, cities, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, land fills, etc., etc. And, sometimes, it doesn't win. *There is difficulty within the scientific community in coming up with an exact figure." ~NASA | Click for source
With every 1 degree Celsius rise in global average temperature, yields for crops like rice, wheat, and corn fall by 10% (PNAS Study). The most comprehensive CO2 study to date by the Global Carbon Project, published by leading scientists in the journal Nature Geoscience, says that the world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6°C (11.5°F) by the end of the century (PwC study) (see also). Connect the dots and that's a potential 60% drop in such crucial crop yields by 2100. Add in factors, such as human population reaching between 8 and 11 billion by 2050 and up to 15 billion by 2100 and a predicted seafood collapse by 2048 (original study), and we have a recipe for a hunger disaster.
"Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth’s climate. Dirt is the ultimate natural resource for all life on earth. Yet most humans ignore, abuse, and destroy our most precious living natural resource.Consider the results of such behavior: mass starvation, drought, floods, and global warming, and wars. If we continue on our current path, Dirt might find another use for humans, as compost for future life forms. It doesn’t have to be that way. Another world, in which we treat dirt with the respect it deserves, is possible and we’ll show you how." ~DIRT! The Movie
Data from World Bank
Data from World Bank
Environmental Working Group: Losing Ground
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Arable Land Percentage By Country As listed on CIA factbook, accessed June 2006. Made from blank world map on commons. Click to view updated information.

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