Our shrinking farmland: mirage or potential crisis

Journal Article · Wed Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1980 · Fed. Reserve Bank St. Louis Rev.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6807253

Luttrell, C B

As prime farmland is converted into streets, shopping centers, and residential areas, observers conclude that the quantity of farmland is declining sharply and that this decline should be controlled by social action. Unobserved, however, are the less noticeable but dramatic increases in acres of cropland and in production per acre. The number of acres from which crops were harvested rose from the 1969 low point of 286 million to 337 million acres in 1979. Yields per acre of cropland rose at a 1.1 percent rate from 1910 to 1969 and at a 1.7 percent rate during the period from 1967-69 to 1977-79. As a consequence of the increase in acres harvested and in yields per acre, farm product and food prices have consistently declined relative to other prices, except during the first half of the 1970s when export demand rose sharply. Consequently, the author concludes there is no justification for using social action to preserve cropland as proposed by critics of the current land market system. Furthermore, even if there was some shrinkage in cropland, there is no evidence that the problem can be solved more efficiently by social action than it can be in the market place.

• OSTI ID: 6807253
• Journal Information: Fed. Reserve Bank St. Louis Rev.; (United States), Journal Name: Fed. Reserve Bank St. Louis Rev.; (United States) Vol. 62:8; ISSN FRBRD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
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AGRICULTURE
FARMS
FOOD
INDUSTRY
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
LAND USE
PRICES
PRODUCTIVITY
RESOURCES
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS