Global Agricultural Wasteland

Agriculture and commercial forestry now dominate almost 40% of the Earth’s entire habitable land [1, 2, 3]. Globally, excluding Antarctica, plant agriculture occupies approximately 7% of the total land mass [2, 3]. This area, covering roughly 9.5 million square kilometres, is equivalent to the entire land mass of China or the United States [3]. From a biodiversity perspective, these regions act as ecological deserts, earning a score of only 5/100 compared to the 100/100 benchmark of primary forests [4, 5]. Plant agriculture is effectively like a concrete car park for nature; because modern crop farming relies on monocultures, herbicides, and pesticides to eliminate competing life, almost nothing is allowed to grow except the target product [4].

Animal agriculture commands an even more staggering portion of the planet, covering roughly 30% of the Earth’s total land mass excluding Antarctica [2, 3]. This area spans approximately 40.5 million square kilometres, which is equivalent to the combined land mass of Africa and North America [3]. The biodiversity score for this land varies significantly based on management practices [6]. Intensive feedlots and dedicated feed-crop fields are regarded as sacrifice zones, having a biodiversity score as low as 2/100 due to chemical runoff and a total lack of habitat [4, 6]. Broadly speaking, animal agriculture is like a manicured lawn; it may look green and natural, but the ecosystem is strictly simplified and suppressed to prioritize livestock over wild predators and native vegetation [6, 7].

The situation is even more concentrated within the United Kingdom, which is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, ranking in the bottom 10% globally [7, 8]. Approximately 73% of UK land is dedicated to commercial purposes, primarily agriculture and commercial forestry [9, 10]. To visualize this scale, the land used for these industries is equivalent to the whole of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland combined [11]. This intensive usage leaves very little room for natural ecosystems to function independently [8, 12]. For every four square metres of the UK, three are utilized for production, leaving only a single square metre to accommodate all housing, transport infrastructure, and the nation’s remaining fragmented wild spaces [10, 12].

In summary:
Animal agriculture occupies 30% of global land, functioning as highly managed ecosystems that suppress biodiversity to prioritize livestock [2, 3, 4, 6, 7]. Commercial agriculture and forestry dominate Earth’s surface, with plant agriculture occupying roughly 7% of land, serving as low-biodiversity “ecological deserts” [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The UK is highly nature-depleted, with 73% of its land utilized for production, leaving only one-quarter for housing, infrastructure, and remaining wild spaces [8, 9, 10, 11, 12].

The Human Zone is the solution to this irresponsible misuse of our planet’s potentially wild, natural landscape.

Sources and Endnotes

Ellis, E.C., et al. (2021). PNAS. pnas.org
Our World in Data (2021). ourworldindata.org
UN FAO (2020) & World Bank Open Data.
Newbold, T., et al. (2016). Science. science.org
IPBES (2019). ipbes.net
Dudley, N., & Alexander, S. (2017). researchgate.net
Natural History Museum (2021). nhm.ac.uk
State of Nature Partnership (2023). stateofnature.org.uk
Defra (2023). www.gov.uk
ONS (2022). ons.gov.uk
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (2020). ceh.ac.uk
Shared Assets (2021). sharedassets.org.uk

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