Assuming 30 square feet of land is consumed per grave.
According to the CIA fact book, 6,744 USA folks die per day.
6700 x 30 = about 200,000 square feet a day.
200,000 x 365 = 73 million square feet a year. Or 1,675 acres per year.
Keep in mind 3,000 acres of productive farmland are lost to development each day.
In 1990, there were almost 987 million acres in farms in the U.S., that number was reduced to just under 943 million acres by 2000, and then reduced to 914 million acres in 2012
When I visit Korea, I noticed they had big bales of hay alongside rugged mountain sides. I asked how they were ever able to grow and cultivate hay on the steep, rocky, mountains, and they laughed and said that’s where they bury their dead, to preserve farmland. Korea is actually spending massive $$$ to blast the tops off of mountains in the far south, then dumping the rocks into the sea, using massive mining trucks. They are actually growing their peninsula and also reclaiming the tops of the mountains. The mining runs 24/7.
At what point will the USA have to do likewise with our graves, by ceasing to use potential farm land?
Both my parents and my wife were cremated and their ashes scattered abouit ten miles off the L A County coast. I hope someone will do the same for me when I cash my last check.
I don’t know if it’s done in the US as well since, well, you guys have a bit more room to play with :), but in Europe it’s also not uncommon to re-use old plots as well, digging up bones nobody visits any more to store them more efficiently in crypts and the like.
Different jurisidictions have different rules about when a grave is considered empty. IIRC from a Cecil column, lots of places consider a grave empty after 5 years, and thus reusable.