Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan say it best in their 2021 country hit, “Buy Dirt”, singing, “…thank the good Lord for it, ’cause He ain’t makin’ any more of it”. He’s not, and U.S. farmland is disappearing at an alarming rate.
A new report is out and its authors are calling it “the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the changes in agricultural land use here in the U.S.”
John Piotti, President of the American Farmland Trust, has recently released a study called “Farms Under Threat: 2040.” The threat is the alarming loss of farmland to development. It says between 2001 and 2016, over 11 million acres of farmland were converted to other uses, which equates to 2,000 acres lost every day.
He recently told a special Agri-Pulse webinar that if this keeps up at this pace, “Another 18.4 million acres will be lost by 2040.”
But ag land conversion may actually be speeding up, and so, “Our finding suggests the urgent need for a more thoughtful, equitable, and sustainable path forward.”
Also on the webinar, Terry Cosby, who runs the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, said this new report will help inform one of his agency’s missions to conserve and preserve farmland.
“Every acre is important. Every acre counts.”
Source: USDA Radio News