In dozens of regions of the country, suburban sprawl is destroying rich and irreplaceable farmlands at unprecedented rates. This is not a minor problem. According to the American Farmland Trust, the destruction of farmland "reduces agricultural efficiency, increases tensions between farmers and suburban neighbors, leads to higher tax burdens and puts greater pressure on less productive, more environmentally fragile lands."

Reports, Books & Organizations

Highlights:
Government Releases National Resources Inventory 

The National Resources Inventory (NRI) is a statistically based sample of land use and natural resource conditions and trends on U.S. nonfederal lands.  This site contains results from the 1997 National Resources Inventory (revised December 2000). The NRI has been reissued because in March 2000 an error was discovered in the results originally issued in December 1999. http://www.nhq.nrcs.usda.gov/NRI/ 

Reports:

American Farmland Trust. Current State Farmland Protection Activities. (Washington, DC: American Farmland Trust, 1991).

American Farmland Trust. Farming on the Edge: A New Look at the Importance and Vunerablity of Agriculture Near American Cities. (Washington, DC: American Farmland Trust, 1994).

American Farmland Trust. Saving American Farmland: What Works. (American Farmland Trust, Herrick Mill, Northampton, MA:1997; 334 pages). 

American Farmland Trust and Northern Illinois University. Saving Open Spaces: Public Support for Farmland Protection. (Washington, DC: American Farmland Trust, 1999).

American Farmland Trust. Sharing the Responsibility: What Agricultural Landowners Think About Property Rights, Government Regulation and the Environment. Results of a Nationwide Survey by American Farmland Trust.

Center for Rural Pennsylvania, Zoning for Farming: A Guidebook for Pennsylvania Municipalities on How to Protect Valuable Agricultural Lands (Harrisburg: Center for Rural Pennsylvania, September, 1995). 

Environmental Defense, Losing Ground (Washington, DC: Environmental Dedfense, 2000).

 

Sorensen, A. Ann, Richard P. Green and Karen Russ, Farming on the Edge (DeKalb, Illinois: American Farmland Trust and Center for Agriculture in the Environment, Northern Illinois University, 1997). 

Trust for Public Land, Western Governor's Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Purchase of Development Rights:  Conserving Lands, Preserving Western Livelihoods (January 2001.)

Books:
Daniels, Tom and Deborah Bowers, Holding Our Ground: Protecting America's Farms and Farmland (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1997). 

Center for Agriculture in the Environment
American Farmland Trust's Center for Agriculture in the Environment actively researches issues in urban sprawl and farmland protection. 

Farmland Information LibraryAmerican Farmland Trust's Farmland Information Library provides links to information related to farmland and land conservation.  Resources include: state and county information, agricultural research, research tools and Geographical Information Systems.

Illinois Land-Use Clearinghouse, a state-specific web clearinghouse of land-use resources, partially funded by the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research, a partnership of American Farmland Trust, Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

Center for Agriculture in the Environment
Ann Sorensen 
PO Box 987 
DeKalb, Illinois 60115 
815-753-9347