Modern agricultural practices save the
equivalent of three Amazon rain forests
Atrazine: Saving Land
Experts say we will have to double agricultural production in order to feed a growing world population.
But does that mean we have to double the amount of farmland?
How many millions of acres of forest would we have to chop down to do that?
How much natural habitat would we have to destroy?
Answer: If we apply the knowledge we have, and continue to innovate new solutions, we can grow twice as much without cutting down one more tree.
Consider what innovation has already achieved:
- Stanford University scientists recently found that advances in agriculture between 1961 and 2005 spared as much as 6.8 million square miles from cultivation.
- That is an area equal to all the cultivated land in use today, or a total of almost three Amazon rain forests .
Atrazine saves wild land from cultivation by helping farmers to grow more food with less land.
- Atrazine has helped corn farmers in the last 20 years grow 41 percent more corn, while reducing soil loss by almost 70 percent, irrigation water by 27 percent, energy use by 37 percent, and CO2 emissions by 30 percent.
This intensification of agriculture is good for farmers. Good for consumers. And good for trees and animals.
