Fallow land is being talked about in almost every possible context. Usually in a negative context, because the provision is probably one of the most bizarre in the history of the European Union.
- The United States is a leader in many branches of agriculture, and at the same time one of the tycoons when it comes to global food production
- Let’s check how much area would have to be fallow in the USA if projects like those in the European Union were pushed there
How much production would the United States lose?
The United States is among the world leaders when it comes to food production. They are a global leader in many branches of agriculture. The scale of production is completely different from the European one, as is the size of farms in the USA. Although American agriculture also has many problems of its own, farmers miss one huge problem – mandatory fallowing, which is being pushed through with great persistence in Europe.
Arable land in the United States accounts for approximately 20% of the country’s land area. The country’s territory covers 9,834,000 km2, so the arable land amounts to 1,966,800. In turn, 4% of this area is 78,672 km2. That’s more than the state of West Virginia and slightly less than South Carolina. It’s also significantly larger than Hawaii and New Jersey combined.
Let’s check how much such an area would constitute in the European Union. The fallow area in the United States would be similar to the area of entire European countries – it would correspond to the area of countries such as, among others, Serbia, Czech Republic or Austria. It would also exceed the area of the Netherlands and Belgium together.
Let us also calculate how much agricultural production in the United States would decrease. If we converted the area lost as a result of hypothetical fallow land into hectares, it would turn out that over 7.8 million hectares would have to remain fallow. This acreage accounts for approximately 30% of the wheat crop in the United States. If we assume an average yield of 4t/ha, it turns out that wheat production would decrease by over 31 million tons. And this is only if we assume not very high wheat yields.
Could fallowing the economy act like a natural disaster?
We have been paying attention to the problem of fallowing on farmer.pl for a long time. A fallow rate of 4% in European Union countries would mean a decline in the production of, for example, wheat by up to 16 million tons – this is the amount produced, among others, by countries such as Argentina and Great Britain.
Fallow land in Poland would mean that approximately 500,000 hectares would lie fallow. We have already pointed out that this is the same as the total area of sugar beets and potatoes in Poland. And with the wheat yield, as in the previous example, it is 2 million tons of grain (total production of e.g. Slovakia) – this is how much the production in our country would decrease in the case of this grain.
So the humanitarian attitude of the European Union has a second meaning. Because on the one hand, it’s best to be a good uncle to the whole world, and on the other, it’s best to spoil yourself from the inside. On the one hand, it is said that food is needed in third world countries, but on the other, it cannot be produced.
The United States, if it pushed for ideas similar to those of the EU, would experience serious problems not only in the agricultural sector. Such a drastic decline in grain production would have an impact on the economy similar to a natural disaster. And if the USA – hypothetically, of course – like the EU countries, also left its land fallow, we would have a huge food crisis in the world.
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