It's Time to Save America's Farms and Ranches

Every minute of every day, two acres of farmland in the United States are lost to development. This means that each year there are millions of acres of arable land that are no longer producing food, fiber, or energy, essential products that the nation's farmers provide to Americans.

While the sustainable food movement has focused on a variety of important themes—from organic production to renewable energy to reducing childhood obesity—the one issue that continues to be  buried in the background is the loss of the nation's most productive farmland. At a time when public interest in food and farming issues is possibly at its highest level ever, we've now reached a point where the issue of farmland loss can no longer be ignored.

The average age of your local farmer is now more than 57 years old, according to the 2007 Census of Agriculture. With fewer children wanting to follow in their parents' farming footsteps, this number is extremely alarming because it signals an even greater challenge than a lack of land to farm—namely, a lack of people to farm it.

A significant portion of our food (86 percent of fruits and vegetables and 63 percent dairy products) is grown in urban-influenced areas, and by extension, the land that provides this bounty falls under the most constant threat of development. Without a new generation of farmers dedicated to keeping this land in production, it's inevitable that it will be lost to sprawling mini-malls, subdivisions, and Wal-Marts.

In addition to losing the ability to produce food when this land is developed, we also lose essential wildlife habitat, the ability to address challenging environmental problems like water quality improvement and an economic engine that keeps many farm communities afloat.

Luckily, there are organizations like American Farmland Trust that are working hard to ensure that agriculture has a vibrant future in the United States. AFT works at the state, local, and federal level to encourage sound land-use planning policies that benefit farmers, advocate for farmland protection funding, and help decision-makers better understand the ramifications of losing any more of the nation's agricultural resources.

AFT was selected as one of 10 winners of Change.org's 2010 Ideas for Change contest, which features the most innovative and progressive plans as voted by the site's readers. AFT aims to include farm and ranch conservation in America's national farm policy and make it a key goal on every state's agenda. Change.org will present AFT's initiative along with other Ideas for Change winners to members of the Obama Administration.

Help AFT protect our nation's irreplaceable farmland by signing this petition. If we don't do more to ensure that this land remains in agricultural production, the American food supply will suffer in ways that even many well-educated activists have failed to acknowledge.

Photo credit: Sam Beebe/Ecotrust