Population Environment Balance |
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Company description::
New analysis conducted by Population-Environment Balance (BALANCE) has shown that a disturbing trend in the loss of U.S. agricultural productivity has accelerated recently.
BALANCE has used the research of Cornell Professor David Pimentel that indicates that the U.S. will no longer be a food-exporting nation within 40 years, due to erosion and the loss of farmland to development assuming current population growth rates continue. He predicts that growing scarcity of food will increase the price and decrease the variety available. Americans now pay an average of 15 percent of their income on food, which could rise to 30-50 percent in a few decades if current population trends continue.
As it turns out, in 1994 Pimentel rightly predicted that the U.S. would lose 15 million acres of farmland by 2000 due to population growth. Recent data provided by the USDA in its 2002 agricultural census show that the U.S. lost exactly 15 million acres of productive farmland between 1997 and 2002. Pimentel’s predictions on productivity of the land appear to be holding true as well.
The USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service data show that the amount of harvested land of principal crops has declined from 1.5 acre per person in 1980 to just over 1 acre per person in 2002. Not only did the population increase by 60 million people between 1980 and 2002 but the number of harvested acres also fell by over 50 million acres. “Thomas Malthus may have been right when he warned in 1798 that as available land, water, and other resources are used up, increases in food production must start to taper off and eventually decline. And today U.S. population is growing at a rate that is putting Malthusian theories to the test,” said Paul Stenbjorn, BALANCE Vice President.
BALANCE is a 501(c)3 non-profit, membership organization founded in 1973 dedicated to protecting America’s environment by advocating U.S. population stabilization.
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If you require more information or would like to arrange an interview or appearance please contact Paul Stenbjorn at (202) 955-5700 or paul@balance.org
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