Ensuring Crop Expansion is Limited to Lands with Low Environmental Opportunity Costs

The paper argues that while a sustainable food future ideally requires no further conversion of natural ecosystems, current yield trends and demand may make some cropland expansion inevitable. It critiques the vague concept of 'degraded lands' and instead proposes a strict four-part biophysical criteria to identify lands with 'low environmental opportunity costs'—those not already supporting crops, having minimal impact on biodiversity, low carbon loss ratios, and a low blue water footprint. To implement this, the author suggests a three-pronged approach: mapping these lands, providing legal and financial incentives for their use, and enforcing moratoriums or deforestation-free commitments to discourage expansion into high-cost natural ecosystems.

• Closing the gap between 2006 global crop calories and 2050 needs without any cropland expansion would require an annual average increase in crop production per hectare approximately one-third higher than the rate seen from 1962 to 2006.
• The concept of 'degraded land' is an unreliable basis for cropland expansion due to a lack of consensus on its definition, widely varying estimates of its location, and the fact that much of such land is already used for crops.
• The author defines lands with low environmental opportunity costs as those meeting four simultaneous criteria: they must not already support crops, have minimal impact on native ecosystems and biodiversity, possess low carbon loss to crop production ratios, and have a low blue water footprint.
• Beyond biophysical criteria, the viability of converting land to crops depends on non-biophysical factors including economic viability, legal availability, social acceptability, and whether cropping is the best alternative use compared to native ecosystem recovery.
• Directing expansion toward low-cost lands requires three types of measures: generating maps based on a clear definition, facilitating use through land tenure and financial incentives, and discouraging high-cost expansion via moratoriums and deforestation-free supply chain commitments.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Ensuring Crop Expansion is Limited to Lands with Low Environmental Opportunity Costs. https://www.wri.org/research/ensuring-crop-expansion-limited-lands-low-environmental-opportunity-costs

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Ensuring Crop Expansion is Limited to Lands with Low Environmental Opportunity Costs. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/ensuring-crop-expansion-limited-lands-low-environmental-opportunity-costs.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Ensuring Crop Expansion is Limited to Lands with Low Environmental Opportunity Costs |url=https://www.wri.org/research/ensuring-crop-expansion-limited-lands-low-environmental-opportunity-costs |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendensuring, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Ensuring Crop Expansion is Limited to Lands with Low Environmental Opportunity Costs}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/ensuring-crop-expansion-limited-lands-low-environmental-opportunity-costs}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }