According to this article, 15% of all habitable land (excluding uninhabitable environments such as glaciers, deserts, etc.) is used to grow crops. By comparison, 38% is forest, 30% is pasture, 13% is shrubs, 3% is fresh water and just 1% is cities. That's a lot of earth's surface dedicated to food production. And with with world's population growing, more and more area is needed for agriculture every year. 

One rapidly-growing solution to this is “vertical farming”. The promise of vertical farming can help to:

• preserve fresh water, which is scarce in many parts of the world
• reduce deforestation to make room for more agriculture
• improve food quality, reducing need for pesticides and herbicides
• limit waste and pollution

Today, the amount of food we produce is limited by the amount of land dedicated to it. Vertical farming solves this because we can stack floors of plants on top of each other. We can control lighting, energy consumption, water, temperature, nutrients, carbon dioxide levels, location, and even timing of harvest. 

As agri-tech continues to improve we may soon be able to reconsider how we use our natural land resources – so long as we're making these decisions with sustainability in mind.