The future of food & farming

• What is a sustainable food system?
• Local food
• Farm Bill policies
• Food & climate change
• The true cost of food
• Challenges to farming
• Biofuels vs food
• Preserving soil & farmland
• Labor & trade
• Factory farming
• Links & resources

Preserving soil and farmland

Farmland is rapidly disappearing and, according to the American Farmland Trust:

• Every minute, America loses two acres of farmland. From 1992-1997, we converted to developed uses more than six million acres of agricultural land — an area the size of Maryland.
• We're losing our best land — most fertile and productive — the fastest. The rate of conversion of prime land was 30 percent faster, proportionally, than the rate for non-prime rural land from 1992-1997. This results in marginal land, which requires more resources, like water, being put into production.
• Every state is losing some of its best farmland. Texas leads the nation in high-quality acres lost, followed by Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Illinois. And for each of the top 20 states, the problem is getting worse.
• Farm, range, and forest lands generate tax surpluses. In contrast, residential development generates tax revenue but requires costly public services.

As farmland disappears, so do entire agricultural communities. In fact, the number of people living on farms in the U.S. has dropped so precipitously that the U.S. census no longer counts them.

Find out how the PCC Farmland Trust is working to preserve farmland, and why it’s important (PDF).