Men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of men
Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, and philosopher (1975)
In the year 2000 there were approximately 15 million square kilometres of cropland and 28 million square kilometres of pasture on this planet. These are equal to 12% respectively 22% of the ice-free land surface.
Agricultural activities have dramatically altered our planet’s land surface, as the authors state in the introduction to their study, but agricultural areas have spaces of central importance to humanity. They provide the foundations not only of the livelihood of the majority of people, but also for feeding the still growing world’s population.
