Professor Foley, Director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of the Minnesota, was warmly welcomed to the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute to give the 33rd Macaulay Lecture.

The presentation, ‘Living on a Shrinking Planet: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustaining Global Land Use’, addressed the challenges of managing trade-offs between immediate human needs and the long-term capacity of the Earth to provide food, clean water, and to regulate the climate.

Prof Foley started his presentation by admitting that his childhood dream was to become an astromer, and coupled with an interest in gardening, this mixture of interests inspires his research.

Prof Foley outlined the challenges currently facing our planet, including the facts that between 1980 and 2000 the population of the Earth has almost doubled, the world economy grew seven-fold, use of fossil fuel rose by 400% and food consumption and water use tripled. “We are pushing the Planet to it’s limits” he said.

The presentation also outlined the role that land use and agriculture plays in climate change with agricultural emissions accounting for one-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, and almost 85% of total global water consumption. In the last 40 years, the amount of land allocated to agriculture has grown by almost 12%, 10% more agricultural land is intensively irrigated, fertiliser use has grown 700% and there has been a marked decrease in the number of crops grown throughout the world.

Outlining the future of land use, Prof Foley highlighted that more crops are now grown for animal feed and that in the last 6 years, we’ve consumed more food than we grew meaning that global stockpiles of grains have been shrinking. Increasing populations, a preference for meat over a more vegetarian diet and increased use of petroleum (The Three P’s) have led to an increased vulnerability for global food supplies.

Ending on a positive note, the need to link food, water and energy use was highlighted, plus the need to value things that have previously been ignored such as the value of land for flood prevention, mitigating natural disasters, and storing carbon plus the role of pollinating species.

“Choices and decisions we make now will affect future generations and beyond” stated Prof Foley.