How Ecosystem Markets Can Transform Agriculture and Protect the Environment |...
Farmland by the Numbers: 2007 National Resources Inventory
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.