Maybe I’m missing something here, but isn’t the first estimate completely meaningless, since it ignores the possibility of maize import/export? I mean, I know it was closer than the second estimate, but seriously, you guys should have known better than to estimate that half of all of Mexico was used for growing crops.
We discussed imports and exports, and couldn’t decide if Mexico was a net importer or exporter, so we went on assumption that most likely imports and exports are small percentage of total maize production and consumption. I stand by this.
50% estimate was quite reasonable based on European land use patterns. I mean—what else would you use all the land lying around for if not food? I would go for lower number now, but it still doesn’t strike me as absurd.
From the perspective of someone in the American west, most of it just isn’t used for anything. I think 50% of occupied land being used for agriculture is a decent heuristic; it’s just that less land is developed for any purpose in North America.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but isn’t the first estimate completely meaningless, since it ignores the possibility of maize import/export? I mean, I know it was closer than the second estimate, but seriously, you guys should have known better than to estimate that half of all of Mexico was used for growing crops.
We discussed imports and exports, and couldn’t decide if Mexico was a net importer or exporter, so we went on assumption that most likely imports and exports are small percentage of total maize production and consumption. I stand by this.
50% estimate was quite reasonable based on European land use patterns. I mean—what else would you use all the land lying around for if not food? I would go for lower number now, but it still doesn’t strike me as absurd.
From the perspective of someone in the American west, most of it just isn’t used for anything. I think 50% of occupied land being used for agriculture is a decent heuristic; it’s just that less land is developed for any purpose in North America.
That link is for arable land, not total land.
You can see on Wikipedia that only around 12% of Mexico’s land is arable.