The Shrinking Land Challenge

Abstract

Conceptually, imagine a vice where on one end there is demand for urban expansion (roads, buildings, industry/commerce, neighborhoods, etc.), on the other end there is societal demand for conservation (“listed” species protections, rewilding of farmlands, mitigations, etc.), and in the middle, being increasingly squeezed, exists the agricultural landscape of America. Conceptually, you can frame the shrinking land challenge. America’s farmland is shrinking while the urban landscape is expanding, and calls for preservation are growing increasingly louder. Land is finite, and once crops are converted to concrete the land is irrevocably changed. Technology has manifested an abundance of food; however, technology (e.g., genetically modified crops, pesticides, fertilizers, etc.) is also experiencing enhanced scrutiny as the frontier of agriculture inevitably converges with the aspirational boundaries of conservation. Unfortunately, few people are aware of the delicate policy intersection of food security, conservation, and population growth. Here we feature this conceptual challenge to provoke necessary discussion and debate.