Ronald Bailey passes along research (pdf) on “peak farmland,” the point at which the amount of land we need to feed the world population begins to decline. This farmland decrease is possible because the amount of crop produced per hectare is increasing at a faster rate than the global population:
Cranking various population, economic growth, and [crop] yield trends through the ImPACT equation, the authors conservatively conclude that in 2060 “some 146 million hectares could be restored to Nature, an area equal to one and half times the size of Egypt, two and half times France, or ten times Iowa.” Under a slightly more optimistic scenario—one where population growth slows a bit more, people choose to eat somewhat less meat, agricultural productivity is modestly higher, and there’s less demand for biofuels—would spare an additional 256 million hectares from the plow. That would mean nearly 400 million hectares restored to nature but 2060, an area nearly double the size of the United States east of the Mississippi River.
The Dish 