1 Introduction
More than 13,000 years ago, mankind made a world-changing decision by settling
down. The nomadic way of life by hunting and gathering, in which people were
ruled by nature, transformed into a domestic lifestyle, in which people shaped and
exploited their natural environment for the production of food: agriculture was born
(Larson et al. 2014). Worldwide, at least eight centres of origin can be distinguished.
In the Levant, grains, peas and flax were cultivated since 11,500 years ago. In China,
rice was cultivated more or less around the same time, whereas a couple of thousand
years later sugarcane became a crop in New Guinea. At the other side of the Pacific,
potatoes, coca, cotton and maize were grown in Middle and Latin America, more
precisely in Mexico, Peru, Chile and Brazil. Apart from these crops, a decisive
development was also the domestication of animals. Wild aurochs were transformed
into cattle about 10,500 years ago in Turkey and Pakistan, while over a large area in
Europe and Asia, pigs were bred from wild boars. Sheep were domesticated in
Mesopotamia, already two thousand years earlier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
History_of_agriculture). Both the production of crops on arable land and the livestock farming on grazing grounds changed our landscapes worldwide.
From this early start, agriculture has spread enormously and become dominant in
large parts of the world. Currently, agriculture covers more than 38% of the world’s
land surface. Permanent pastures account for more than two-third of this area; most
of the rest is used for cultivating crops (FAOSTAT 2019; Ritchie and Roser 2019).
Agricultural land is widespread worldwide, found on all continents, with the emphasis on temperate and tropical climate zones; in the circumboreal regions, the conditions are too restrictive as in the larger deserts.
The distribution of temporal arable land and land under permanent use for crops
or pastures (with herbaceous forage crops, either cultivated or growing wild) is
showing some clear contrasts. For most countries, the majority of agricultural land is
used for livestock rearing in the form of pastureland. In Europe and South-Asia,
however, the amount of land used for livestock is much lower than for arable
farming, less than 20% (Fig. 1).
To sketch future scenarios with perspectives for sustainable agriculture and
biodiversity conservation, it is necessary to have insight in driving forces that have
constituted our present agricultural landscape. We will explore and illustrate the
complexity of the topic by addressing various aspects of this agricultural tapestry.
In modern, heavily mechanized agriculture, specialisation is a dominant factor.
Nowadays, two of the main agricultural activities (crop cultivation and grazing) are
generally separated on the level of individual farmers and farming systems, and at
the same time scaled up to a degree never seen before. In the US, as an example, the
average farm size (in 2017) is 444 acres, and still increasing. Each year since 2012,
the average size has been expanded approximately two acres per farm, whereas the
number of farms is gradually decreasing (www.usfarmdata.com). In the US, the
centre of agricultural activity has to be looked for in the Great Plains, a vast and
generally flat area, west of the Great Lakes and east of the Rocky Mountains. The
408
J. H. J. Schaminée and N. M. van Rooijen
More than 13,000 years ago, mankind made a world-changing decision by settling
down. The nomadic way of life by hunting and gathering, in which people were
ruled by nature, transformed into a domestic lifestyle, in which people shaped and
exploited their natural environment for the production of food: agriculture was born
(Larson et al. 2014). Worldwide, at least eight centres of origin can be distinguished.
In the Levant, grains, peas and flax were cultivated since 11,500 years ago. In China,
rice was cultivated more or less around the same time, whereas a couple of thousand
years later sugarcane became a crop in New Guinea. At the other side of the Pacific,
potatoes, coca, cotton and maize were grown in Middle and Latin America, more
precisely in Mexico, Peru, Chile and Brazil. Apart from these crops, a decisive
development was also the domestication of animals. Wild aurochs were transformed
into cattle about 10,500 years ago in Turkey and Pakistan, while over a large area in
Europe and Asia, pigs were bred from wild boars. Sheep were domesticated in
Mesopotamia, already two thousand years earlier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
History_of_agriculture). Both the production of crops on arable land and the livestock farming on grazing grounds changed our landscapes worldwide.
From this early start, agriculture has spread enormously and become dominant in
large parts of the world. Currently, agriculture covers more than 38% of the world’s
land surface. Permanent pastures account for more than two-third of this area; most
of the rest is used for cultivating crops (FAOSTAT 2019; Ritchie and Roser 2019).
Agricultural land is widespread worldwide, found on all continents, with the emphasis on temperate and tropical climate zones; in the circumboreal regions, the conditions are too restrictive as in the larger deserts.
The distribution of temporal arable land and land under permanent use for crops
or pastures (with herbaceous forage crops, either cultivated or growing wild) is
showing some clear contrasts. For most countries, the majority of agricultural land is
used for livestock rearing in the form of pastureland. In Europe and South-Asia,
however, the amount of land used for livestock is much lower than for arable
farming, less than 20% (Fig. 1).
To sketch future scenarios with perspectives for sustainable agriculture and
biodiversity conservation, it is necessary to have insight in driving forces that have
constituted our present agricultural landscape. We will explore and illustrate the
complexity of the topic by addressing various aspects of this agricultural tapestry.
In modern, heavily mechanized agriculture, specialisation is a dominant factor.
Nowadays, two of the main agricultural activities (crop cultivation and grazing) are
generally separated on the level of individual farmers and farming systems, and at
the same time scaled up to a degree never seen before. In the US, as an example, the
average farm size (in 2017) is 444 acres, and still increasing. Each year since 2012,
the average size has been expanded approximately two acres per farm, whereas the
number of farms is gradually decreasing (www.usfarmdata.com). In the US, the
centre of agricultural activity has to be looked for in the Great Plains, a vast and
generally flat area, west of the Great Lakes and east of the Rocky Mountains. The
408
J. H. J. Schaminée and N. M. van Rooijen