Article 1070 of alt.sustainable.agriculture:
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From: ae446@Freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen)
Subject: American Farmland Trust -- op-ed column
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Reply-To: ae446@Freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen)
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Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1993 05:11:54 GMT
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Here is an op ed column from American Farmland Trust.
I downloaded it from the PR On-Line BBS in Maryland at 410-363-0834.

 American Farmland Trust -- Op Ed Column
 To: Editorial Page Editors
 Contact: Gary Kozel of American Farmland Trust, 202-659-5170

   Editors:

   The following is submitted for your review as a guest editorial
or op ed column.

                         by Ralph B. Grossi
                         President
                         American Farmland Trust

   The USDA currently estimates that most of the crops on the 6
to 8 million acres of farmland battered by the Midwestern
floods will be lost this year.  That no doubt will prove
devastating to the farmers whose livelihoods so greatly depend on
the saturated soils.
   As one who has endured his share of weather-related calamities,
I empathize with the plight of my fellow farmers.  But I also know
that like farmers everywhere, those in the Midwest are a resolute
lot.  Unfortunately, some may go out of business, but given the
inherent agricultural productivity of the bottomlands and the
slight chance that such serious flooding will ever occur again in
their lifetimes, most will return to their farms to produce for
another day.
   The damages farmers have suffered from the flooding of crops and
erosion of topsoil serve as vivid reminders of the vulnerability of
the agricultural resource base with which we have been blessed.  It
makes it even clearer why we must increase our resolve to protect
our best land for food production.
   I am referring to the highly productive farmland around the
nation's growing metropolitan areas.  According to USDA estimates,
more than 2 million acres of productive farmland is being
permanently converted to nonagricultural uses each year, much of it
the result of sprawling, poorly planned growth patterns on the
urban edge.
   The ultimate cost of this displacement could be significant.
Urbanedge farmland now generates 56 percent of gross U.S.
agricultural sales.  It also accounts for 86 percent of the
country's fruit, nut and vegetable crops, nearly 80 percent of its
dairy production and 45 percent of its meat and poultry.  Measured
on a dollars per acre basis, farmland in urban-influenced counties
is more than two and one-half times as productive as other U.S.
farmland.
   Urban sprawl is wasteful, expensive and unnecessary. If it is
allowed to go unchecked, the nation will lose some of its best and
most productive agricultural capacity.  We will increasingly come
to rely on foreign countries for fruits, vegetables and other
commodities, which will weaken the one industry where we still have
a clear advantage.  Agriculture will be forced onto marginal land
that requires more fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation and is
more expensive to farm.  And scenic countryside and precious
wildlife habitat will be lost.
   At American Farmland Trust, we believe we must launch a national
program to protect our urban edge agricultural resources.  USDA in
consultation with states and localities must identify and designate
strategic agricultural reserve areas where the key agricultural
resources most threatened by rapid urban growth are protected.
   All levels of government must work together to prevent the
onslaught of urban sprawl in the reserves and give farmers the
encouragement, incentive and technical assistance they need to
commit the land to long-term productive use by making their farms
more profitable and development-resistant.
   The federal government must also integrate the protection of
strategic farmland with other agricultural resource concerns such
as soil conservation and water quality and reinforce state and
local farmland protection efforts by fully implementing current
farmland protection laws.
   States should adopt policies to protect strategic farmland and
strengthen their right-to-farm laws.  Local governments must
provide zones for the long-term protection of strategic agriculture
and develop growth management programs that avoid sprawl and
minimize farmland annexations.  State and local governments without
farmland protection programs should establish them and direct
development to areas where it can be more efficiently served by
existing infrastructure.
   Farmers in and around America's great metropolitan areas are in
trouble.  Literally and figuratively, they are doing business on
the edge.  As a nation we must begin to recognize the strategic
value as well as the vulnerability of our urban-edge agricultural
land and take steps to protect it.  Otherwise, we one day will
simply lose it.
    ------
   Ralph E. Grossi, a Northern California farmer, is president of
American Farmland Trust, a Washington-based farmland conservation
group working to stop the loss of productive farmland and to
promote farming practices that will lead to a healthy environment.
Last week at a press conference in Washington, AFT issued a report
on farming on the urban edge of America.

 -30-

-- 
Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada  ae446@freenet.carleton.ca



