40 by 50 meters, for example, or even 20 by 100. That’s a lot of space: 175 parking spaces for cars, two 50-meter pools, each with eight lanes, or one-third of a soccer field [2]—significantly more than what allotment gardeners would want to tend in their free time.
On the other hand, most farming families in Asia and Africa have just 2,000 m² per person at their disposal. Over 80 percent of all farmers worldwide cultivate only two hectares (20,000 m²) of land or less [3] and thus farm only about 12 percent of the world’s agricultural land. Nevertheless, they produce over a third of the world’s food. [4] On such small farms, a larger portion of crop production is
used for food, whereas on larger farms, more goes toward animal feed and processing. [5]
11% of the Earth’s surface (excluding the oceans and Antarctica) is arable land. In addition, about 1% consists of perennial crops such as grapevines and fruit trees. 25% is pasture (both arid and fertile), 31% is forest, and 32% is “other land”: primarily deserts, cities, and roads, as well as inland waters. [6]
