Farming Claims Almost Half Earth's Land, New Maps Show
New maps show food production now takes up 40 percent of the Earth's land surface, revealing the extent to which farming has changed the face of the planet, scientists say.
Food production takes up almost half of the planet's land surface and threatens to consume the fertile land that still remains, scientists warn.
The global impact of farming on the environment is revealed in new maps, which show that 40 percent of the Earth's land is now given over to agriculture.
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists compiled the maps using satellite images and crop and livestock production data from countries around the world. The team presented their picture of global land use this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
"The satellite data tells us where cultivation is occurring with good spatial accuracy, while the census data is able to tell us what is being grown
