The Shrinking Land Challenge

Conceptually, imagine a vice where on one end there is
demand for
urban expansion (roads, buildings, industry/commerce, neighborhoods,
etc.), on the other end there is societal demand for conservation
(“listed” species protections, rewilding of farmlands,
mitigations, etc.), and in the middle, being increasingly squeezed,
exists the agricultural landscape of America. Conceptually, you can
frame the shrinking land challenge. America’s farmland is shrinking
while the urban landscape is expanding, and calls for preservation
are growing increasingly louder. Land is finite, and once crops are
converted to concrete the land is irrevocably changed. Technology
has manifested an abundance of food; however, technology (e.g., genetically
modified crops, pesticides, fertilizers, etc.) is also experiencing
enhanced scrutiny as the frontier of agriculture inevitably converges
with the aspirational boundaries of conservation. Unfortunately, few
people are aware of the delicate policy intersection of food security,
conservation, and population growth. Here we feature this conceptual
challenge to provoke necessary discussion and debate.