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The
following information was acquired in 2006 and since then, the statistics have only gotten worse. The
face of American agriculture is changing dramatically. The United States is currently loosing farms at an alarming rate of
23 per day. In the last 10 years, the United States has lost 84,220 farms (a 4% decrease in farms), while Minnesota has lost
4,700 farms (a 6% decrease). Nationwide we have lost 29.3 million acres of farmland (a 3% decrease) and Minnesota has lost
1.9 million agricultural acres in the last 10 years (a 6.4% decrease). In just one year from 2004 - 2005, this country has
lost 2.9 million acres of farm land. That's like loosing the state of Connecticut if Connecticut were 100% agricultural!
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The vast majority of this farm loss is in the form of small
farms. Nationally, we have lost 207,084 (11%) of our small farms over the past 30 years. That averages out to a loss of
19 small farms per day. On a local level, Minnesota has lost 29% of its small farms for a total loss of 21,484 small farms
in the past 30 years. That’s almost 1/3 of our small farms in Minnesota alone that have been lost. (Statistics compiled
from USDA census reports.)
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Where is all of this land going? A small percentage has
been bought by larger farm operations but the vast majority of our agricultural lands are being bought up by developers and
then resold as residential for amazing profits that can exceed 96%. (For example – a developer purchases agricultural land
at $2,000 per acre and resells it for $50,000 per acre. That is a profit of $48,000 per acre!) Now multiply that profit
by 100 acres, that’s a profit of $4.8 million dollars!
Besides the fact that this type of greed is just plain wrong,
there are other critical factors that make the wasting of our agricultural lands something that needs to be stopped. It is
estimated that our world population will increase from 6 billion people (as of the year 2000) to 11 billion people in just
the next 50 years. How are we going to feed all those people if we are destroying our agricultural lands at a rate of 2 acres
per minute each and every day! That's over 1 million acres each year being taking out of production while our population
is increasing by 100 million each year. We cannot afford to loose any more acreage!
We urge you to read more about
this loss by going to a website that we have discovered at www.farmland.org
This website gives information on what is happening across this country and in Minnesota where we are among the top 20 states
for loss of agricultural land. It is then up to each of us to contact our local, state and federal government officials to
stop this wholesale destruction and development of the land that provides this nation and others with the one thing that none
of us can literally live without - our food!
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People need to stop purchasing land in rural areas from the
developers and we need to ask our local governmental planning and zoning committees to place restrictions on the rezoning
and development of agricultural lands.
We also need to start paying a fair price for our food. Forcing food prices
down places unrealistic demands on our farmers to do whatever is necessary to cut their costs just so that they can maybe
squeak out a living. The children of farmers see that their parents either live in poverty or need to work two or more jobs
just to stay on the farm. These children are leaving this way of life at an alarming rate. If farmers were paid what they
are actually worth, they would be less likely to sell out to developers and more farms could be passed on to future generations.
Surely, we can cut back or eliminate some of the unnecessary, frivolous toys that we currently tend to clutter our lives with.
Isn't good, nutritional, healthy food worth more?
We need to support our small local farms that typically raise meat
and produce on a smaller, healthier basis than large factory farms that supply most grocery store chains. While smaller farms
raise less meat/produce, the quality of those products is better and fresher than that of grocery store meat/produce. Most
small farms don’t use antibiotics or growth hormones to speed their livestock to market. They grow vegetables without the
use of pesticides or herbicides because they know that they will be eating a portion of those vegetables themselves and don’t
like the idea of ingesting chemicals.
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How can you support your local farmers? It’s really quite easy
to do. Simply purchase your meat and produce directly from their farm stores or from local farmer’s markets on a regular
basis. In addition, you can often purchase these products from local food co-ops. If you are unsure of which farms raise
their livestock and produce naturally, it’s as easy as a phone call to the local farmer. He will be happy to tell you what
his farming practices are.
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