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In an earlier post [2], I commented on the fear that we are overcultivating the earth, suggesting that such fears are exaggerated. Here’s the way the worriers word it:
More land was converted to agriculture since 1945 than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
That does sound scary. It seems alarming. But I have no idea if it is or it isn’t. I’m also not sure how we could know such a thing. Who gathered that data from the 1700s? I did finally find some recent data from the UN, here. [3] According to these data, arable land and permanent land under cultivation (which appears to be equal to all land that is cropped) has risen 13% since 1961, from 1.366 billion hectares, to 1.541 billion hectares. Is that alarming? I report. You decide. You can go here [4] and go country by country or region by region. In the US, for example, arable land has declined from 182 million hectares to 178 million hectares.