Think Globally Eat Locally Final Report 8-23-08 | American Farmland Trust
US losing over an acre of farmland per minute - largest losses in Texas, Florida, California
1.
2. Farmland loss is an issue of
national importance.
The largest acreage loss was in
Texas, which had a staggering 2.9
million, followed by Florida and
California with both losing more
than 1.5 million acres. Another
34 states lost more than 250,000
acres each.
3. In the United States, we’ve been losing more than an acre of
farmland per minute. States losing the largest proportion of
their land were clustered in the Northeast, with New Jersey
and Rhode Island each losing more than 20 percent.
4. Even farming areas
that were thought to be
so big, so productive
and so important as to
be almost untouchable
are in danger.
Florida and California,
two of the three states
experiencing the
largest acre losses of
agricultural land,
currently account for
47 percent of the
nation’s vegetables
and 71 percent of its
fruit production based
on market value.
5. Despite pressures from growth, some states developed
relatively less land and were able to protect more acreage of
land than what was lost.