Why Is All the Land Gone?

Urban fringe farming

Three million acres. Three MILLION acres. Yup, folks, that's how much farmland was lost in the U.S. last year. That's about an acre a minute!  Perfectly good farmland taken out of production. Drought and tough economic factors played a large role in the loss of acreage, while pressure to sell land for development in suburban fringe farmland took care of the rest of it.

This is not a new trend, either. In the last 30 years, the US has lost over 92 million acres of farm land, with each state losing a significant amount (http://fgscholars.com) Suburban sprawl and wasteful use of land are rapidly eating up the most fertile and productive land in the nation. Farms on the fringes of towns and cities are at the most vulnerable for development, despite the fact that they produce the majority of the food consumed by Americans, including 91% of the fruits and 78% of the vegetables (http://e360.yale.edu).