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Market expert fears the world might run out of food production acres

Photo: Jacob Shapiro and Dan Basse speak with attendees at PDPW’s Dairy Insights Summit

A global commodities marketing expert is concerned about the number of acres used to produce food.  Dan Basse with AgResource Company says the rapidly-growing world population will need land for growing food. “This is a really big deal because if I need more acres to feed that ever-expanding world. We added a billion people in twelve years to the global population. The next billion happens in eight and a half, so where does the food supply come from?”

Basse says the U.S. is already at peak available farmland, but even with countries like Brazil expanding on a large scale, it won’t be enough without major advancements in technology and production per acre. “We reach what I call peak global farmland which means that at that point, it’s all about yield and technology. We do not have any more arable acres to be brought into production. That is going to be a very scary and important time for humankind.”

Basse says putting more farmland into conservation reserve programs is making the problem worse.

Basse made his comments during the recent Dairy Insights Summit hosted by the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin.