A map predicts 95 per cent of America's soil will be degraded in less than 30 years.
Only a 5 percent area is marked not degraded, in an illustration by the Save Soil movement, which shows all other areas of land on the globe suffering the same damage.
"This does not just affect global agriculture, but increasingly our vulnerability to extreme climate shocks, like droughts and floods," said the Save Soil movement.
The organization released the map ahead of the United Nations Day to Combat Drought and Desertification on Monday.
Degraded soil is largely a result of intensive farming practices, which include an overreliance on chemical fertilizers, frequently using heavy machinery, overgrazing, excessive use of pesticides and herbicides and more.
It leaves land unable to retain water effectively, "making us vulnerable to climate shocks such as droughts, wildfires and water shortages," Save Soil said.
The environmentalists are calling for policies which facilitate regenerative agricultural practices that reduce degradation and drought.
Save Soil CEO Praveena Sridhar said: "Our aim is to raise visibility of the soil crisis among citizens, because only then will policy changes happen.
"There is a crisis, but regenerative solutions for soil health exist, and we still have time to turn this around.
"Healthy soils must be our legacy for the health of our children and survival of future generations."
An example of these policies is the Soil Health and Income Protection Program (SHIPP).
This was a pilot program introduced by the 2018 Farm Bill, which provides payments to farmers who plant perennials (like grasses, legumes and other long-lived species) on farmland that is not being used for crops.
These plants help conserve the soil, reduce erosion, and contribute organic matter to the soil when they grow and die.
It also helps improve water filtration and provides habitats for insects that may be beneficial to the soil.
Newsweek has contacted the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture via email for any response to these calls to action.
Save Soil used data from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification to make a map showing levels of degradation around the world in 2019. It then used an estimation from the Global Environment Facility for the 2050 map.
It said: "The ensuing food crisis would be exacerbated by the fact that by 2050, the global population will have ballooned to 9.8 billion.
"Every second, an equivalent of four football fields of healthy soil becomes degraded, adding up to a total of 100 million hectares (about 250 million acres) every year. Non-degraded healthy soil is a direct necessity for 95% of the food production for more than 8 billion people.
"For nations across the globe, this degradation is also causing a rapid increase in climate shocks such as droughts, threatening hundreds of millions of lives, crippling livelihoods and forcing millions of people into migration."
Update 06/17/2024 12:32 p.m. ET: The caption on the 2050 map was updated to include data source.
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Jordan King is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on human interest-stories in Africa and the ... Read more
