Clearing tropical forests for farmland is bad for the climate 鈥� no surprises there. But now we鈥檝e learned that it鈥檚 also an inefficient way to feed people.
of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues worked out the potential yields of 175 different crops if they were planted in different parts of the world.
Then they estimated how much carbon would be released into the atmosphere by clearing these areas of wild plants.
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鈥淚n the tropics, clearing a hectare of land releases twice as much carbon as in the temperate zones, and only produces half as much food,鈥� says West.
鈥淚f we want to balance increasing food production and decreasing carbon emissions, we should emphasise increasing crop production on existing lands.鈥�
Trouble in the tropics
鈥淐ontinued expansion of croplands into tropical forests results in a lose-lose situation for growers and our climate system,鈥� agrees of Stanford University in California, who was not involved in the study.
However, he warns that boosting yields on existing lands can cause other problems, such as nitrogen pollution from fertiliser run-off. 鈥淲e need to take such unintended consequences into consideration as well,鈥� he says.
Journal reference: , DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1011078107
