Author Question: Please explain why so much of the land in the United States is not suitable for farming. Describe ... (Read 66 times)

hubes95 · **on:** Jul 21, 2018

Please explain why so much of the land in the United States is not suitable for farming. Describe how much of the land
in the United States is suitable for farming and how much is suitable for crop production.

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

How does the usefulness of a natural resource change over time? What factors affect usefulness most?

What will be an ideal response?

ciecieme · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 21, 2018

Answer to Question 1

The U.S. land area is 3,675,545 square miles. Of that, about two-thirds could be useful for farming. The
remainder is located in areas that are too hot, too wet, or too inaccessible to make farming practical. Only about
17 percent, or 385 million acres, is suitable for crop production. The rest is either too steep, too rocky, too wet,
or is located in places that make crop production impractical or impossible

Answer to Question 2

Attitudes and technology change the usefulness of resources. Something is a natural resource when people value it
(attitude) and are able to utilize it in some way (technology). For example, whale oil used to be a natural resource
because people used it to burn in lamps. Now, we have better and cheaper sources of light, so whale oil is no longer
considered a valuable natural resource in most of the world.