Global Agricultural Land Use v. Agricultural Production [OC]Submitted by rosetechnology t3_xvgmuw in dataisbeautiful
s0cks_nz t1_ir3tnd2 wrote
Reply to comment by J_McJesky in Global Agricultural Land Use v. Agricultural Production [OC] by rosetechnology
Imagine. The most advanced society to ever grace the solar system, and our food production technique has already decimated 30-50% of our top soil in just one human lifetime.
An agricultural system that will basically exhaust the planet's fertility in less than 200yrs (from the start of the green revolution) just seems monumentally stupid. But here we are. And that's not even mentioning what it's done to insect populations both above and below ground.
Northstar1989 t1_ir4mz8o wrote
Thankfully, this kind of thing is self-limiting.
The more expensive crops become (due to diminishing usable topsoil) relative to the cost of things like fertilizer and hiring land use experts to advise on how to reduce erosion, the more these will be used.
Looking at any trend and projecting it infinitely into the future without change is always a terrible idea.
Feedback looks exist everywhere. Trends will generally either accelerate, or slow down and level off, with time.
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