Arable land is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops. Alternatively, for the purposes of agricultural statistics, the term has a more precise definition: "Arable land is the land under temporary agricultural crops, temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow; the abandoned land resulting from shifting cultivation is not included in this category. Data for'Arable land' are not meant to indicate the amount of land, cultivable." A more concise definition appearing in the Eurostat glossary refers to actual rather than potential uses: "land worked generally under a system of crop rotation". Non-arable land can sometimes be converted to arable land through methods such as loosening and tilling of the soil, though in more extreme cases the degree of modification required to make certain types of land arable can be prohibitively expensive. In Britain, arable land has traditionally been contrasted with pasturable land such as heaths, which could be used for sheep-rearing but not as farmland.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in the year 2013, the world's arable land amounted to 1,407 million hectares, out of a total of 4,924 million hectares of land used for agriculture. Agricultural land, not arable according to the FAO definition above includes: Permanent crop – land that produces crops from woody vegetation, e.g. orchardland, coffee plantations, rubber plantations, land producing nut trees. Other non-arable land includes land, not suitable for any agricultural use. Land, not arable, in the sense of lacking capability or suitability for cultivation for crop production, has one or more limitations – a lack of sufficient fresh water for irrigation, steepness, adverse climate, excessive wetness with impracticality of drainage, and/or excessive salts, among others. Although such limitations may preclude cultivation, some will in some cases preclude any agricultural use, large areas unsuitable for cultivation may still be agriculturally productive.

For example, US NRCS statistics indicate that about 59 percent of US non-federal pasture and unforested rangeland is unsuitable for cultivation, yet such land has value for grazing of livestock. In British Columbia, Canada, 41 percent of the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve area is unsuitable for production of cultivated crops, but is suitable for uncultivated production of forage usable by grazing livestock. Similar examples can be found in many rangeland areas elsewhere. Land incapable of being cultivated for production of crops can sometimes be converted to arable land. New arable land makes more food, can reduce starvation; this outcome makes a country more self-sufficient and politically independent, because food importation is reduced. Making non-arable land arable involves digging new irrigation canals and new wells, desalination plants, planting trees for shade in the desert, fertilizer, nitrogen fertilizer, reverse osmosis water processors, PET film insulation or other insulation against heat and cold, digging ditches and hills for protection against the wind, installing greenhouses with internal light and heat for protection against the cold outside and to provide light in cloudy areas.

Such modifications are prohibitively expensive. An alternative is the seawater greenhouse, which desalinates water through evaporation and condensation using solar energy as the only energy input; this technology is optimized to grow crops on desert land close to the sea. Examples of infertile non-arable land being turned into fertile arable land include: Aran Islands: These islands off the west coast of Ireland, were unsuitable for arable farming because they were too rocky; the people covered the islands with a shallow layer of sand from the ocean. Today, crops are grown there though the islands are still considered non-arable. Israel: The construction of desalination plants along Israel's coast allowed agriculture in some areas that were desert; the desalination plants, which remove the salt from ocean water, have created a new source of water for farming and washing. Slash and burn agriculture uses nutrients in wood ash. Terra preta, fertile tropical soils created by adding charcoal. Examples of fertile arable land being turned into infertile land include: Droughts such as the "Dust Bowl" of the Great Depression in the U.

S. turned farmland into desert. Rainforest deforestation: The fertile tropical forests are converted into infertile desert land. For example, Madagascar's central highland plateau has become totally barren (abou

Horace Williams Airport was a public use airport located one nautical mile north of the central business district of Chapel Hill, a city in Orange County, North Carolina, United States. It is owned by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although most U. S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, this airport is assigned IGX by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA. Known as Martindale Field for Chapel Hill contractor Lee Martindale and one of the first airfields in North Carolina. Renamed "Chapel Hill Airport" and offered pilot training and air shows; the airport was purchased by the university in 1940 and renamed for Prof. Horace Williams, Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University during the first half the twentieth century, who donated much of the land needed to expand the airport; the airport was part of a large gift of land to the university by professor Horace Williams in the 1930s, while the professor did not restrict the use of the property to airport use, it has been an airport since 1933.

Presidents Ford and George H. Bush received Navy primary flight training at the airport. President Kennedy departed via Horace Williams Airport. Horace Williams Airport covers an area of 420 acres at an elevation of 512 feet above mean sea level, it has one runway designated 9/27 with an asphalt surface measuring 4,005 by 75 feet. For the 12-month period ending July 31, 2007, the airport had 10,800 aircraft operations, an average of 29 per day: 94% general aviation, 5% air taxi and 1% military. At that time there were 47 aircraft based at this airport: 23 % multi-engine. On July 12, 2010, a Cirrus SR 20 carrying Kyle Henn, the brother of a victim of the July 2010 World Cup Finals bombing in Uganda, crashed upon landing at the airport. One person was killed during this crash; the University planned to close the airport to make room for construction of Carolina North, a planned major long-term expansion of its campus. Opposition to closure plans began after the announcement of the planned closure in 2000, when pilots claimed that closing this air field would be a loss of infrastructure that would never be replaced.

They noted that upgrades to the airport approved by the FAA had kept pace with current technology, it was staffed with meticulous attention to detail and careful people, although there have been some complaints about runway maintenance. The position of general aviation advocates and lobbyists was that there is something special about airplanes, to lose them in Chapel Hill for the sake of more buildings and population density must be considered. Conflict between the town and airport advocates has had a history dating back to the 1980s, revolving around issues such as the location of the airport in a residential area that includes 4 schools, a church, a YMCA, as well as several crashes in the area that resulted in the University's ejection of a flying club flight school from the airport. Critics of the airport noticed that the University's first plans for the Carolina North project included keeping the airport in close proximity to occupied buildings and reminded the University that liability in the event of another crash could be substantial, given the existence of guidelines recommending against building so close to a working runway.

In addition, interested private-industry interests indicated concern about the costs and liabilities of building on the site if the airport remained. The plans for Carolina North were revised, the UNC Board of Trustees commissioned a study on the basis of which they ordered the airport closed; the University's plans for airport closure were blocked in the state legislature on at least three occasions since the 2000 announcement. Although some planes using the airport did so on University business, opposition to closure was offered by private plane owners and general aviation lobbyists desiring to preserve their access to the airport. Most opposition efforts focused on the University's planned move of six Area Health Education Centers planes to new facilities at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, to make way for construction of the first phase of the new Carolina North campus project, planned to include teaching and cooperative public-private projects affiliated with the University. However, economic realities stalled all progress on development of Carolina North, the airport remained open and active.

In May 2018, a NOTAM appeared announcing the permanent closure of the airport, effective May 15. According to local news sources, the closure will make way for a solar energy project. Airplanes based at Horace Williams were removed from the airport prior to May 1. Https://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7946846/ Horace Williams Airport Horace Williams Airport: Operations Policy Aerial photo as of 2 April 1998 from USGS The National Map FAA Terminal Procedures for IGX, effective February 27, 2020 Resources for this airport: FAA airport information for IGX AirNav airport information for KIGX FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker NOAA/NWS weather observations: current, past three days SkyVector aeronautical chart, Terminal Procedures

David James Parker is a politician from Alberta, Canada. He was the leader of the Alberta Greens from 1996 to 2001, he has been a perennial candidate running in federal and provincial elections. Parker first ran for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1993 Alberta general election, he ran in the electoral district of Edmonton-Gold Bar. He was defeated finishing second last in a field of six candidates. Liberal incumbent Bettie Hewes won the electoral district with a landslide majority. Parker became leader of the Alberta Greens in 1996; as leader of the party he ran for office in the 1997 Alberta general election in Gold Bar for the second time. He was defeated by Hugh MacDonald losing some of his previous votes and finishing second last with 97 votes, he finished just ahead of Natural Law leader Maury Shapka. Parker stepped down as leader in 2001. Parker ran for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2004 Canadian federal election in Edmonton Centre for the federal Greens.

He won 5% of the popular vote finishing fourth. A few months Parker ran in the provincial Edmonton Centre electoral district in the 2004 Alberta general election, he won fourth place well behind incumbent Laurie Blakeman. He ran again in Edmonton Centre two years in the 2006 Canadian federal election this time marginally increasing his popular vote but still finishing a distant fourth place. Parker most ran for a second time in the provincial Edmonton Centre electoral district in the 2008 Alberta general election again finishing a distant fourth. In the 2008 federal election, he placed fourth in the Edmonton Centre riding