Abstract
Envision a looming skyscraper in Chicago. There, on the very top floor, resides an exorbitantly wealthy man. He is a billionaire with great affluence and influence. His assets and investments scatter the globe. His penthouse shimmers with gold-trimmed décor, and luxurious carpets cradle the feet of his well-dressed visitors. This man considers himself to be a mover and shaker, someone who influences the fortune and fate of his nation.
Our attitudes toward land have changed, but our reliance upon it has not.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Notes
- 1.
Michael Bean, Robert Bonnie, Tim Male, and Tim Searchinger, The Private Lands Opportunity: The Case for Conservation Incentives (New York, NY: Environmental Defense, 2003), 21.
- 2.
Rattan Lal, Ronald Follett, and J. M. Kimble, “Achieving Soil Carbon Sequestration in the US: A Challenge to Policy Makers,” Soil Science 168 (2003): 827–45.
- 3.
J. D. Garbrecht et al., “Impact of Weather and Climate Scenarios on Conservation Assessment Outcomes,” Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 69 (2014): 374–92.
- 4.
Ralph E. Heimlich and William D. Anderson, Development at the Urban Fringe and Beyond: Impacts on Agriculture and Rural Land, Agricultural Economic Report 803 (Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, 2001), 88.
- 5.
Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, DC, and Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology, Iowa State University, Summary Report: 2012 National Resources Inventory (Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, 2015), https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcseprd396218.pdf.
- 6.
US Department of Agriculture and President’s Council on Environmental Quality, National Agricultural Lands Study (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, January 1981).
- 7.
See www.farmlandinfo.org for more ideas and tools that help protect farmland.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Jessica Eise and Ken Foster
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Doering, O., Sorensen, A. (2018). The Land That Shapes and Sustains Us. In: Eise, J., Foster, K.A. (eds) How to Feed the World. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-885-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-885-5_4
Publisher Name: Island Press, Washington, DC
Print ISBN: 978-1-61091-989-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-61091-885-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)