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May 16, 2007
Thinking large
China is running out of arable land for farming.
You require less hyperpole? Okay. The China Ministry of Land and Resources has figured a minimum of 12 billion acres is needed to sustain the population of the country.
As a result, officials closely monitor land development in rural areas. Last years construction of homes, businesses and infrastructure covered just under 29 million acres. They had planned to use only 27 million.
Currently they produce almost 500 million tons of grain on 12.2 billion acres. Just enough to meet the food demand of 1.3 billion people.
Some Ministry experts believe the food supply will begin to drop in roughly 6 years, as construction begins to eat away at that minimum requirement of 12 billion acres.
This sort of problem isn't even on our radar. We should watch as they approach a reality check for population control.
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