Every day 2,000 acres of farmland are paved over or converted to uses that jeopardize farming, according to the American Farmland Trust.

Needed for food

This land, the richest in the world, is irreplaceable and needed to grow food. The Trust considers the current circumstance a national disgrace and catastrophe. I would agree.

Better stewardship needed too

Farmers, too, have a role. They must take better care of the land they have to avoid irreversible damage to the land they farm. Farming, as a way of life, also may be at risk.

Uhland, Texas

I remember years ago trying to encourage the tiny city of Uhland, Texas, to consider farmland banking through the Trust to preserve its own disappearing farmland. My husband was on the City Council at the time. But he was the only person interested in listening. Guess he had to!

The council left me waiting several hours to speak, even though I had a 6 year old with me. Then, they dismissed my concerns with comments like, “No one’s gonna tell me what to do with my land.” They completely misunderstood the voluntary nature of the Trust.

So guess what happened?

Almost immediately, those same Council members started selling off their families’ farmland for mobile home development. Today, Uhland has virtually no usable farmland, but has those mobile home and stick-built home developments.

American Farmland Trust

Since its founding in 1980, the Trust has helped protect more than 6.8 million acres of American farmland. The Trust’s strategies unite farmers, conservationists and policymakers. They also help promote solid farming practices for those who don’t chose to place land in a conservation easement. The easement, though, does keep the land out of the hands of developers and preserves it for farming.

The paving of the land

According to the Trust, “If we continue obliterating out family farms at the rate we have been–burying them under condos and malls and highways–our nation will  be unable to supply enough fruits and vegetables to meet recommended amounts for a nutritious diet.”

For more information

For more information, you may visit www.farmland.org or make a donation to help fund the organization’s work. If you donate, you’ll receive a 2022 Farmer’s Almanac!