Agriculture Covers 1/3 of All Land

To keep pace with the ever-increasing food demands of humans, farmers are converting more and more land for agricultural use.

As a result, more than one third of the Earth's landscape is used for agricultural activities and this transformation has emerged as one of the driving forces of global environmental change, according to a new report from the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"The real question is: how can we continue to produce food from the land while preventing negative environmental consequences such as deforestation, water pollution, and soil erosion," said SAGE scientist Navin Ramankutty.

To better understand this trade-off researchers are merging satellite and census data to track the changing patterns of agricultural land use around the world, focusing on factors such as global crop yields and fertilizer use.

Though the study is in its early stages, the process is already showing emerging trends. Farmers in Argentina and Brazil are increasingly clearing forests to grow soybeans, a crop not traditionally grown in Latin and South America. This shift is a result of rising demand for soy in China, causing U.S. soy farmers to feel uneasy about their place in the global market.

The researchers will present their findings at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Dec. 5-9.

--Bjorn Carey

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Credit: Amato Evan / SAGE