Agri Future – Hands up agriculture

Posts Tagged ‘America’s’

Indicates that the rate of America’s population growth rate is a 1.1% per year and will double to more than half a billion people within the next 60 years.  In greater Phoenix, Arizona area we see the disappearance of orange and other citrus groves, dairy farms, and farm land.  In its place housing development at a rapid rate especially near Native American reservation settings within an urban settings.  In some cases, cities and towns buffering right up to the borders of reservation settings.  From 1990 to 2000 all of Arizona nearly doubled in size and most likely with the new 2010 US Census report it will be more than doubled.  In an article in Yale University’s Environment 360, Jonathan Foley, Director of the Institute of the Environment, University of Minnesota, argues that the global community now faces a “crisis in land use and agriculture that could undermine the health, security, and sustainability of our civilization.” While climate change has received enormous attention (rightfully, Foley argues), human population growth, and the corresponding rising global demand for meat and dairy products, as well as the growing need for bioenergy from corn, sugarcane, and other sources should be equal cause for concern. “We are putting tremendous pressure on the world’s resources. As the international community focuses on climate change as the great challenge of our era, it is ignoring another looming problem — the global crisis in land use. With agricultural practices already causing massive ecological impact, the world must now find new ways to feed its burgeoning population and launch a Green Revolution. With the population growth it not only has demands upon land but water and energy are impacted as well. “Water is critical for all crops which require and transpire massive amounts of water during the growing season. For example, a hectare of corn will transpire more than 5 million liters of water during one growing season. This means that more than 8 million liters of water per hectare must reach the crop.