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Urban Sprawl Continues to take Best Farmland

By Greg Brown Associate Editor

In 1993, American Farmland Trust (AFT) published its first Farming on the Edge map and study. Since then, the rate of farmland disappearance has increased to nearly 1.2 million acres per year. When AFT analyzed the agricultural production occurring on high quality farmland threatened by development, 79% of the total United States’ production of fruit, 69% of the vegetables, 52% of the dairy products, 28% of the meat and 27% of the grain are produced in counties that are threatened by development. Suburban expansion and tough economic conditions continue to force growers to sell the farm, giving in to urban expansion. Recent analysis by AFT has revealed something that many growers may have known intuitively for years: more than half the value of United States farm production was generated in counties in and around urban areas. (Click here to view chart.) The number one most endangered area is Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys in central California. The area stretching down the center of California and encompassing 19,140 square miles, is one of the nation’s most important agricultural resources, producing 250 different commodities worth more than $13 billion a year. The population growth in counties with the highest agricultural productivity was more than twice the national average, according to Robyn Miller, media relations specialist with AFT. “The farming on the edge study looks at land using three criteria: soil quality, development pressure on the land, and the agricultural market value of the land,” said Miller. “Our study really pointed out is that it is the best farmland that we are losing.” All farmland , as growers know, is not created equal, and the study sought to take unique natural characteristics into account. These characteristics that often support fruit, vegetable and specialized crops, often occur in the same place that developers desire. As Miller says, you can’t grow blueberries in Kansas. The current expansion pressures are related to how our ancestors settled the land near the most fertile farmland. “Because of the way the U.S. was settled, the cities grew out of the areas that held the best farmland,” said Miller. “It is the farmland surrounding urban areas that is the best in terms of the amount of output that it produces when compared to the total inputs. Often, things can be grown on farmland near urban areas that can’t be grown any place else.” The Northern Piedmont region, composed primarily of parts of Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia was the second most endangered resource in the study. Covering 11,530 square miles, approximately 72% of this temperate, humid region is in farms and 25% is urbanized. Nearly 70% is threatened by development, but some states in the region offer farmland preservation tools to its communities. “The primary tool that AFT is supporting is the purchase of development rights (PDR) which are publicly funded farmland protection programs, said Miller. The AFT recently honored Pennsylvania for its PDR program. “There is a federal farmland protection program that has just received $17.5 million in funding,” according to Miller. Generally, PDR programs work by allowing the locality to buy the development rights to the land from the farmer. In turn, the farmer agrees to permanently protect that land from development. But, the PDR is not the only tool in the preservation box, according to Miller. “They (PDR’s) should be used in conjunction with other tools like zoning and transfer of development rights,” she said. According to the study, every state lost some of its best prime and unique farmland to urban development. Much of the prime and unique farmland threatened by development is adjacent to major metropolitan areas, Miller pointed out. The research also indicated that the gradual dispersal of the nation’s population into smaller, less densely settled cities and towns is having an impact on high quality farmland. The study recognizes concerns about the impact of urban growth on the availability of land for agriculture that have persisted for the last 50 years, intensifying in the early 1970s when international demands for United States agricultural commodities soared. AFT suggests that USDA, the Commerce Department, states departments of agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency work together to quantify the impact of farmland conversion on key parameters such as water quality, air quality, wildlife populations, rural economic health, crop production, distribution of produce, agricultural imports and regional food security. States should develop similar inventories and systems for tracking the fate of farmland, especially strategic farmland as they define the concept to fit their own needs, Miller suggests. The organization also suggests that the Federal Farmland Protection Policy Act be strengthened and enforced. All levels of government should review policies affecting land use decisions of landowners and eliminate those that discourage the retention of quality farmland. The AFT also endorses the revision of federal and state estate taxes to help keep agricultural land in the hands of farm families committed to continue farming. For more information on the AFT and their recent study visit: www.farmland.org.