Overview
Land use is the last of the five main indicators analyzed to assess the environmental impacts of our commodities. It is a measure of the amount of land that a farm uses per unit of product. A higher land use value for a specific farm means that the farm is using more land to produce the same amount of a crop than a farm that has lower land use. High land use effectively means that a producer is using the land more extensively. This is generally worse for the environment because land that could be used for other agriculture, urban space, or natural habitat is essentially being wasted.
Agricultural Land Use
The agricultural sector uses a lot of the Earth’s land. Today, half of the world’s inhabitable land is used for agriculture. 77 percent of agricultural land is used for livestock (including grazing land and land used to grow animal feed), while the remaining 23 percent is used for crops. Agricultural expansion within the last thousand years has been one of humanity’s largest impacts on the world. There are many consequences of agricultural land use, such as affecting the water quality in the area. The crops being planted and agricultural practices can limit the amount of water available, and runoff from fertilizers, pesticides, and livestock can pollute water. The expansion of land often results in the destruction of natural habitats for animals in the area. Additionally, agricultural land use can also lead to the spread of invasive species that can disrupt the ecosystem and damage animal and human habitats. For these reasons, decreasing land use and land expansion as well as improving agricultural land use practices are important steps towards improving ecosystems locally and in turn improving the global environment.
A Note on Units
At first glance, the units for land use might seem strange: m2yr. This metric indicates the area occupied to produce 1kg of product. It is calculated using the inverse of yield and using total occupation time, which includes fallow time.