Retire marginal land and bring nature into farming

The author contends that the global food system has reached 'peak land' and that decoupling agricultural land use from food production allows for the retirement of marginal land. By paying farmers to stop farming unproductive areas, the document suggests that environmental services can be restored and GHG emissions reduced by 20-40% if 5% of farmland is retired by 2030 and 10% by 2050.

• Global food production has decoupled from land use; since 2000, the total amount of land used for crops and livestock has declined even as food production has increased.
• The US Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) demonstrates the environmental impact of retiring marginal land; by paying farmers to idle 8% of US land that was highly erodible or on steep slopes over 40 years, the national soil erosion rate fell by 50%.
• Several factors are driving the abandonment or potential retirement of farmland, including climate-induced displacement (with the UN estimating 1 billion people may be displaced by drought and climate impacts), the aggregation of holdings into mechanized farms, and an aging farmer population where half of all farmers are 54 or older and half of all ranchers are 64 or older.
• In Brazil's Cerrado region, research from 2001 indicated that large producers like SLC Agricola set aside 30-40% of degraded pastureland they acquired because it was unsuitable for production.
• The document proposes a global target to retire 5% (240 million hectares) of farmland by 2030 and 10% (480 million hectares) by 2050, which could reduce absolute global agricultural GHG emissions by 20-40%.

APA

Clay, D. J. (2024). Retire marginal land and bring nature into farming. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/news/perspectives/sustainability-works-hub/sustainability-works-index/retire-marginal-land-and-bring-nature-into-farming/

Chicago

Clay, Dr. Jason. Retire marginal land and bring nature into farming. WWF International, 2024. https://www.worldwildlife.org/news/perspectives/sustainability-works-hub/sustainability-works-index/retire-marginal-land-and-bring-nature-into-farming/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Clay |first1=Dr. Jason |title=Retire marginal land and bring nature into farming |publisher=WWF International |date=19 November 2024 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/news/perspectives/sustainability-works-hub/sustainability-works-index/retire-marginal-land-and-bring-nature-into-farming/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{clay2024retire, author = {Clay, Dr. Jason}, title = {{Retire marginal land and bring nature into farming}}, publisher = {WWF International}, year = {2024}, month = nov, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/news/perspectives/sustainability-works-hub/sustainability-works-index/retire-marginal-land-and-bring-nature-into-farming/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }