No Farms, No Food

by Greg Plotkin · 2009-11-06 12:30:00 UTC
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More than being a cute tag line for the organization that employs me, the phrase "No Farms, No Food" represents an often overlooked and forgotten component of maintaining a sustainable food supply.

With all the talk about Genetically Modified seeds, organic vs. conventional agriculture, and the physical and environmental horror of industrialized meat production, the one conversation that is consistently left off the table is protecting the land base that all kinds of agriculture (no matter what your definition of "sustainable" is) depends on.

Despite a surge of interest in farming in the United States, the country continues to lose two acres of farmland every second of every day.  This is happening in every state in the country, and is especially significant in urbanized areas that are responsible for 86 percent of the fruits and veggies, and 63 percent of the dairy, produced in the United States.

Even in some discussions of land use, the importance of actually protecting and securing a future for that very land is very rarely mentioned.  It doesn't matter if a farmer chooses to grow GM corn or organic cucumbers if the land is turned into sprawling strip malls.

What we need in the United States are strong state and municipal agricultural zoning laws that address the need to protect the country's agricultural resources, as well as adequately funded farmland protection programs at the state and federal level that help farmers preserve their land for future generations.

Supporting local agriculture is not just about stopping at the farmers market every weekend.  It is about encouraging your local, state and national legislators to make farmland protection a significant priority.  We can either all pay (monetarily) to protect farmland now, or we can all pay later when there's no land left to grow food.

The choice is ours, but it has to be made now.

(Photo credit: Sam Beebe/EcoTrust on Flickr)

Greg Plotkin is the Coordinator of Farm Camp at Flying Pigs Farm in Washington County, New York.
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