The Earth As An Apple

Take your apple. Imagine this apple is the planet Earth. Now cut it in half. Cut it in half once more. You should now have 4 pieces of your apple, all roughly the same size. 3 of your apple quarters represent the portion of our planet that is covered by water. Obviously we cannot grow food where there are oceans and bodies of water. 1 of your apple quarters represents all of the dry land on the planet. Now take that 1 quarter the represents all of dry land and cut it in half to create 1/8 of an apple. This 1/8 represents the suitable land that can provide food. The other 1/8 of our apple, or half of our dry land, is covered under ice, part of a desert, on a steep mountain slope, or in some way, shape, or form unsuitable to grow food. So we are left with 1/8 of the earth on which to grow our food. However, we are not able to use the entire area of this 1/8 of our applesome of our fertile land is covered by cities, buildings, or other kinds of development. To represent this, we must cut our 1/8 of an apple in half, and in half once more to create of 1/8. This of 1/8 (or 1/32 of our planet) represents the land available for growing food. But wait! This isnt entirely true either! We dont have that entire 1/32, meager as it may be, on which to grow our food. We only have the skin of that 1/32, the skin of the apple that represents the topsoil of our earth. Go aheadpull the skin of your apple sliver off. Look at it closelyand think about what it represents. Ultimately, the skin of that apple sliver represents human lifethe nearly 7 billion of us that are crammed onto this earth depend on the skin of that sliver to sustain us all. It is this sliver that is being eroded away every day by poor management. It is this sliver that is being developed and built over every day by urban sprawl. It is this sliver that is being polluted beyond repair in far too many places around the globe. It is this sliver that is dwindling even as we speak. It is this sliver on which we all depend. Your apple wasnt very big to begin with, and it is getting smaller. The only question remains, how small will it get? Between 1980 and 2000, the US lost enough farmland to fill the state of Illinois. The rate at which we are losing farmland is still increasing1. Right now, 2.2 million acres of fertile land, an area the size of Yellowstone National Park, are lost every year to development. Stand up for what you stand on. It is a scarce natural resource, and it is becoming scarcer each day.
1

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/commplanning/