Serpent Country
12-04-2005, 03:39
I was pondering details about my country and decided to check and see how much land area was needed to feed a given number of people.
Noting that there seems to be a rough maximum size for nation-states nations at somewhere over 5 billion, and that there are a lot of countries with populations in the multi-billions, I decided to work with this figure.
This vegetarian website had information on land use issues. According to it, a largely plant-based diet (like in Asian countries) requires about .5 acres to feed a single person. A diet like that of America (with more meat) requires 3.5 acres a person.
http://www.veg.ca/issues/enintro.html
The site below I skimmed (not read). It said that there is some sort of critical level at about .1 ha per person. I'm guessing that if you're at the "critical level" you're probably using land very intensively, eating lots of tofu, and trucking the entire contents of your sewers out to the farmlands each morning.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:G0piVBUFA9MJ:www.webofcreation.org/NEW-TESTING/State/word-texts/SHRINKAGE-OF-CROPLAND%2520.DOC+%22land+area%22+to+feed+a+person&hl=en
Actual Calculations
Doing conversions into kilometers out of hatred of the English system, I calculated that to feed five billion people one would need
~10 million square kilometers (if they eat mostly plants)
~35 million square kilometers (if they eat a lot of meat)
~5 million square kilometers (at the "critical level")
Note these figures refer only to area used for agricultural land. Most of a typical nation is not going to be arable land. So, if you want your giant country to have forests and cities, it should probably be quite a bit bigger.
By comparision, the land areas of China, Canada, and the United States are all a little shy of 10 million square kilometers. Russia is about 17 million square kilometers. The World's land area is 510 million square kilometers.
Wikipedia's Spiffy List of Countries By Area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_area)
The CIA World Factbook has information on how countries uttilize their land:
The Indispensable CIA World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/)
Other Stuff
Note that ruminant animals (cows, goats) can uttilize lands that humans cannot use for crops. Also, if you're by the sea, you can go fishing. Thus, a highly population-dense country might have some beef and fish on its plates, but not much chicken or pork.
And, large dense countries could always import grain or meat. Perhaps a large, powerful, and densely populated nation could be supported agriculturally by a flotilla of smaller, agricultural countries.
And this is Nation-States land. So, we can always fudge these issues if we want.
Algae Tanks
In case you don't want to get your food from conventional farming, you can theoretically find ways around this. One of my favorite websites, Atomic Rockets, has an interesting discussion (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3g.html) on the feasibility of using algae tanks to supply crewmembers on long ranged space voyages. Makes a higher population density theoretically feasible. Might not be very tasty though.
Disclaimer
Note that I am not an agricultural scientist, or a farmer. I'm not an expert on land use - I'm just trying to shed a little light on the issue. And maybe get a sticky, if people think my little spiel is useful. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about something.
Noting that there seems to be a rough maximum size for nation-states nations at somewhere over 5 billion, and that there are a lot of countries with populations in the multi-billions, I decided to work with this figure.
This vegetarian website had information on land use issues. According to it, a largely plant-based diet (like in Asian countries) requires about .5 acres to feed a single person. A diet like that of America (with more meat) requires 3.5 acres a person.
http://www.veg.ca/issues/enintro.html
The site below I skimmed (not read). It said that there is some sort of critical level at about .1 ha per person. I'm guessing that if you're at the "critical level" you're probably using land very intensively, eating lots of tofu, and trucking the entire contents of your sewers out to the farmlands each morning.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:G0piVBUFA9MJ:www.webofcreation.org/NEW-TESTING/State/word-texts/SHRINKAGE-OF-CROPLAND%2520.DOC+%22land+area%22+to+feed+a+person&hl=en
Actual Calculations
Doing conversions into kilometers out of hatred of the English system, I calculated that to feed five billion people one would need
~10 million square kilometers (if they eat mostly plants)
~35 million square kilometers (if they eat a lot of meat)
~5 million square kilometers (at the "critical level")
Note these figures refer only to area used for agricultural land. Most of a typical nation is not going to be arable land. So, if you want your giant country to have forests and cities, it should probably be quite a bit bigger.
By comparision, the land areas of China, Canada, and the United States are all a little shy of 10 million square kilometers. Russia is about 17 million square kilometers. The World's land area is 510 million square kilometers.
Wikipedia's Spiffy List of Countries By Area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_area)
The CIA World Factbook has information on how countries uttilize their land:
The Indispensable CIA World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/)
Other Stuff
Note that ruminant animals (cows, goats) can uttilize lands that humans cannot use for crops. Also, if you're by the sea, you can go fishing. Thus, a highly population-dense country might have some beef and fish on its plates, but not much chicken or pork.
And, large dense countries could always import grain or meat. Perhaps a large, powerful, and densely populated nation could be supported agriculturally by a flotilla of smaller, agricultural countries.
And this is Nation-States land. So, we can always fudge these issues if we want.
Algae Tanks
In case you don't want to get your food from conventional farming, you can theoretically find ways around this. One of my favorite websites, Atomic Rockets, has an interesting discussion (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3g.html) on the feasibility of using algae tanks to supply crewmembers on long ranged space voyages. Makes a higher population density theoretically feasible. Might not be very tasty though.
Disclaimer
Note that I am not an agricultural scientist, or a farmer. I'm not an expert on land use - I'm just trying to shed a little light on the issue. And maybe get a sticky, if people think my little spiel is useful. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about something.