Whether you live in a bustling metropolis or on a farm, you will indeed pay the price for the loss of soil. “If we are interested in food prices at the end of the century,” says the Worldwatch Institute, “we should be looking at soil erosion rates today. The less soil we have, the more food will cost.”

In countries where population is exploding with staggering soil loss, the results can be catastrophic. Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa, where grain production is on a drastic decline and famine is an ever-present threat. According to reports published in the book State of the World​—1985, Africa was essentially self-sufficient in food production as recently as 1970. In 1984, however, some 140 million people​—out of a total of 531 million—​were fed with grain from abroad.