This Land is My Land

     It is estimated that our population shall reach 10 billion by 2050 if current trends continue. How is our future generation going to be able to feed these additional people when close to a billion people go by starving every day. As our population keeps expanding at an exponential rate it puts more pressure on the resources and lands we depend on so crucially. You have to ask yourself, “Are we demanding too much?”
    Land is a valuable commodity. There is only a limited amount available. As a civilization we have to compare the opportunity cost of what to do with the land available. We need to preserve nature and try to leave as much land as possible untouched, what little of it remains. With our growing population we have to dedicate more land towards agriculture to feed our sprawling society. Of course we need land to live on, but with our ever growing population it is hard to give every man 40 acres and a mule. It is hard enough to find 40 acres that aren’t already owned, protected, or left barren to  begin with. We our population growing so fast and land becoming so limited we have tough choices to make.
    Now imagine an Earth 1000 years in the future. The human population has been drastically reduced to a fifth its current size. Where our descendants live in food producing, energy generating, waste managing independent like city state. Cut off from nature, to allow it to run its course. Where everything you could ever need would be available and provided in the bubble you call home. No longer would we have to depend on the surrounding land. Instead of growing outwards we could star looking and building towards the heavens above. Why have so many acres dedicated to farm land when you could have Vertical Farms inclosed in skyscrapers. Where people wouldn’t have to go a day without a meal. This is what Roderick Nash imagines in island civilization: A vision for human occupancy of Earth In The Fourth Millennium.

Despommier, Dickson. "The Rise Of The Vertical Farm." The Vertical Farm Project - Agriculture for the 21st Century and Beyond. 19 June 2011. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. <http://www.verticalfarm.com/>.

"Global Hunger - Bread for the World: Have Faith. End Hunger." Bread for the World: Have Faith. End Hunger. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. <http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/>.