The need to provide food, water, timber, fiber and fuel to a global population that recently surpassed seven billion is driving worldwide alterations to forests, waterways, air quality, as well as farmlands. In 2005, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reported that one quarter of the earth’s terrestrial surface is devoted to cultivated systems, i.e. at least thirty percent of the landscape is utilized for activities like cropping, shifting cultivation, confined livestock production, or freshwater…
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