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Linus Blomqvist

@linus-blomqvist · 8 positions · 0 changes of mind

Environmental economist at the UC Santa Barbara Bren School and former director of conservation and food and agriculture at the Breakthrough Institute, where he worked on whether raising crop yields actually leaves more land for nature. A co-author of the Ecomodernist Manifesto.

Linus Blomqvist did not write this page.

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  1. Our reading

    Believing that higher yields do not spare land would push investment away from the thing that actually protects wild habitat.

    Their wordsClaims to the contrary could lead to a misallocation of investments and, consequently, worse environmental (and social) outcomes.

    ↗Raising Agricultural Yields Spares Landthebreakthrough.org 1st of 8 in this piece

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    Whether higher yields spare land or take more of it depends on how open the market for the crop is, so staples spare land and globally traded crops often do not.

    Their wordsTherefore, land sparing is more likely to take place, even at the local level, when yields of staples go up. The situation is different for some internationally traded products like soy and palm oil.

    ↗Raising Agricultural Yields Spares Landthebreakthrough.org 2nd of 8 in this piece

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    Raising yields on land already farmed is what keeps farming from taking more of the wild world.

    Their wordsIn other words, land sparing almost always occurs—it is just a question of where.

    ↗Raising Agricultural Yields Spares Landthebreakthrough.org 3rd of 8 in this piece

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    Without the yield improvements of the last half-century the world would have cleared more than twice as much cropland.

    Their wordsWithout yield improvements, therefore, we would have seen more than double the cropland expansion.

    ↗Raising Agricultural Yields Spares Landthebreakthrough.org 4th of 8 in this piece

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    Making American farms more productive shrinks cropland in the rest of the world by more than it adds at home.

    Their wordsNelson Villoria estimates that for every 1% gain in Total Factor Productivity (inputs required per unit of output) in the US, croplands in the rest of the world shrink by 0.7%.

    ↗Raising Agricultural Yields Spares Landthebreakthrough.org 5th of 8 in this piece

    America

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    The claim that higher yields backfire and end up increasing farmland is much weaker than the literature assumes.

    Their wordsIn sum, land sparing is common at the local level and the norm at the global scale, in contrast to recent appeals to Jevons' paradox.

    ↗Raising Agricultural Yields Spares Landthebreakthrough.org 6th of 8 in this piece

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    Higher yields alone do not protect habitat locally; they have to be paired with zoning, payments or certification or the land is cleared anyway.

    Their wordsYield-boosting measures, however, always need to be thoughtfully paired with other measures to ensure that outcomes—environmental as well as social—are acceptable at the local level.

    ↗Raising Agricultural Yields Spares Landthebreakthrough.org 7th of 8 in this piece

    housing

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    The case for raising yields, especially among smallholders, is humanitarian as much as environmental.

    Their wordsWhat this also tells us is that, at the end of the day, the argument for boosting yields—especially among smallholder farmers—is not just environmental: it is humanitarian.

    ↗Raising Agricultural Yields Spares Landthebreakthrough.org 8th of 8 in this piece

    Interesting