Cited by 8,476Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental ImpactLand Use and Ecosystem ServicesClimate change impacts on agriculture

Solutions for a cultivated planet

Open access
Foley, Jonathan A., Ramankutty, Navin, Brauman, Kate A., Cassidy, Emily S., Gerber, James S., Johnston, Matt, Mueller, Nathaniel D., O’Connell, Christine +13 more·2011·Nature

Abstract

Increasing population and consumption are placing unprecedented demands on agriculture and natural resources. Today, approximately a billion people are chronically malnourished while our agricultural systems are concurrently degrading land, water, biodiversity and climate on a global scale. To meet the world's future food security and sustainability needs, food production must grow substantially while, at the same time, agriculture's environmental footprint must shrink dramatically. Here we analyse solutions to this dilemma, showing that tremendous progress could be made by halting agricultural expansion, closing 'yield gaps' on underperforming lands, increasing cropping efficiency, shifting diets and reducing waste. Together, these strategies could double food production while greatly reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/nature10452

Cites

74 of 74 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Cropland occupies 1.53 billion hectares of Earth's land surface.

    “The area of Earth’s land surface devoted to cropland already occupies 1.53 billion hectares (83)”
  • Without gains in yield and efficiency of agricultural systems, the expansion of human populations will inevitably continue to reduce and fragment natural areas.

    “Without gains in yield and efficiency of agricultural systems (83), the expansion of human populations will inevitably continue to reduce and fragment natural areas.”
  • Rates of growth in the global extent and per capita use of land for agriculture seem to be declining even as human populations increase beyond seven billion and per capita demand for food is increasing.

    “Even as human populations increase beyond seven billion and per capita demand for food is increasing, rates of growth in the global extent and per capita use of land for agriculture seem to be declining (22).”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [22]

  • Depending on location, there is still strong potential for further intensification of agricultural land use.

    “Recent studies indicate that, depending on location, there is still strong potential for further intensification of agricultural land use (22, 104, 126).”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [22]

  • Practices that increase C inputs include improved varieties or species with greater root mass, crop rotations that provide greater C inputs, more residue retention, and cover crops during fallow periods.

    “Practices that increase C inputs include (i) improved varieties or species with greater root mass to deposit C in deeper layers where turnover is slower 21 , (ii) adopting crop rotations that provide greater C inputs 22 , (iii) more residue retention 23 , and (iv) cover crops during fallow periods to provide year-round C inputs (Fig. 1).22,24”

    From Climate-smart soils (2016) · cites this paper as [21]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Foley, J. A., Ramankutty, N., Brauman, K. A., Cassidy, E. S., Gerber, J. S., Johnston, M., Mueller, N. D., O’Connell, C., Ray, D. K., West, P. C., Balzer, C., Bennett, E. M., Carpenter, S. R., Hill, J., Monfreda, C., Polasky, S., Rockström, J., Sheehan, J., Siebert, S., Tilman, D., & Zaks, D. P. M.
Affiliations
  • University of Minnesota (US)
  • McGill University (CA)
  • University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
  • Arizona State University (US)
  • Stockholm Resilience Centre (SE)
  • University of Bonn (DE)
Corresponding author
Foley, Jonathan A.
Venue
Nature
Published
2011-10
Volume
478
Issue
7369
Pages
337-342
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2126902408
Cited by
8,476
References
74
Citations by year
2026: 580 · 2025: 616 · 2024: 731 · 2023: 710 · 2022: 738 · 2021: 821 · 2020: 814 · 2019: 685 · 2018: 586 · 2017: 489 · 2016: 477 · 2015: 404 · 2014: 348 · 2013: 294 · 2012: 167
FWCI
230.79
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Climate change impacts on agriculture
Keywords
food security, agricultural expansion, yield gap, dietary change, food production growth, environmental impact of agriculture, land degradation, energy crops, animal feed, food waste, population growth
MeSH terms
Agriculture, Conservation of Natural Resources, Diet, Environment, Food Supply, Humans, Models, Theoretical

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review