FARMLAND TRUSTS
"Nearly all farmland was carved from a wilderness of forests, wetlands, and prairie. Biodiversity has declined in the wake of the plow. The greatest challenge facing us, then and today, is to create an agriculture that is in harmony with the environment. One that feeds us without harming other human and natural life support systems. One that is sustainable, both economically and ecologically." So wrote Patrick Noonan of American Farmland Trust.
Farmland trusts see their mission narrowly. They're protecting farmland as farmland. In this they will succeed, to a degree. And they'll fail, because under current circumstances there is more farmland than is needed.
Conservationists need to look at farmland protection as one facet of land protection. Those of us interested in land protection need to try to make sure that WHEN this land is converted from agriculture as much of it as possible is put to some sensible use.
The best way to retain farmland is to ensure the profitability of farming. But....
The first reason farming is not profitable is that the government wants cheap food. The federal government wants cheap food and cheap gas. When those prices rise voters get restless. The low profitability of of farm operations is the result of many government programs. The US government has been more successful than most in keeping it's subjects fat, happy, and on four wheels.
Another way in which farm commodity prices have been kept artificially low is by government toleration of large numbers of immigrant workers, often illegal aliens, who work for low wages and tolerate unsatisfactory, sometimes dangerous working conditions. The apologists for this kind of labor give the same excuse in the fields or in the slaughterhouse: "They are the only ones that'll do this kind of work." Left unsaid is the rest of the sentence, "at this wage, with the rest rooms locked and the safety equipment turned off".
Too much farmland is yet another way that farm commodity prices are kept low. Do we really need 65 percent of our non-federally owned land to be in agriculture? Obviously not, based on oversupplies of many crops and the inability of many farmers to make a living without heavy subsidies from the taxpayers. The reason we have too much farmland is historical. Farming is the way the country was settled. Farming was a way people could make a living. In 1900 over 40 percent of the US population lived on farms. In 1900, only 2 percent lived on farms. As a way of making a living, farming is now nearly insignificant.
The other reason farmland is in surplus is the increase in productivity that American Agriculture has achieved. To be sure, part of this increase is illusory, based on large inputs of herbicides, fertilizers, and fossil fuel energy. More and more land is irrigated. In some irrigated regions the water table is dropping. Groundwater in some places is contaminated with fertilizer chemicals.
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The farmer who worked a farm two generations ago delivered eggs to families and traded chickens to the local grocery store for other supplies. He ground his neighbors' corn for their animal feed and their kitchen cornmeal. The families of wheat farmer now eat wonder bread. They have no grinding mill, and they are to bust to bake. (3)
Wm G Center
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(3) Richard Brewer- Conservancy
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