By: David Blanchard

David Blanchard — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 02:17:03 +0000

In light of Fargione’s projection of an additional 42 million hectares of cropland required to feed the mid-21st century population, it’s interesting to note that the U.S. alone has an estimated 14 million hectares of lawn, much of which exists on what was good farmland (since good farmland also makes good building sites), and much of which already receives fertilizer and irrigation water. So there’s potentially 1/3 of of the required increase in cropped area in the U.S. alone. Of course, these small plots would never work for the prevailing North American model of extensive, highly mechanized farms – but they could be extremely productive as home gardens or urban mini-farms.

Comments on: Predicting peak cropland

By: David Blanchard