Disappearing California Ag Land a “Growing” Concern: “Losing the Farm” Not the Best Option

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Alan Kandel

To those who say California lacks culture, I say it has the best kind. It’s called agriculture. Try taking this kind of “culture” away and then see what’s left. An entire state bereft of fruit, vegetable and cotton plants/trees and all the varied and interconnected aspects associated with the industry (e.g., processing, packing, packaging, labeling, storing, shipping, and marketing); a trade and industry that just so happens to thrive here (not to mention all the beautiful fruit tree blooms that no longer could be beheld). If that were to happen, many of the state’s towns would simply dry up, as agriculture is their lifeblood. In conjunction with this, hordes, invariably, would be filling the ranks of the unemployed. Thinking about the potential negative impact is mind-boggling. Definitely would qualify as a “domino effect” phenomenon. Fortunately, that’s not a reality. Yet, this is exactly what’s happening one acre, one parcel, one hectare at a time.

Wake-Up Call

Agriculture here is a growth industry, or more correctly, was. At some point along the way, a point of diminishing returns was reached. Problem is, the world’s population continues to expand and hunger, and in some cases and far, far worse, starvation, is keeping pace right along with it. If the amount of farmable acreage keeps receding, how on earth is the worldwide demand for food going to be met? Less farming won’t cut it. Therefore, higher outputs per given area of farmland and/or more technologically productive or efficient growing methods could be the only practical solution (and salvation) if more food-growing acreage isn’t established. While those aren’t bad ideas, at the end of the day, in all likelihood it wouldn’t be enough.

Consider for a moment this glaring, “in-your-face” realization.

The “American Farmland Trust is a leading national advocate for farmland preservation and also advocates the use of purchase of development rights (PDR – also called agricultural conservation easements) as a tool to stop farmland conversion by development,” writes Spudman magazine Contributing Editor, Dick Lehnert in the article: “Washington Farmland Preservation: Washington state moves ahead on farmland preservation.” (Spudman, Jan. 2008, pp. 36-37). Citing AFT Pacific Northwest states director Don Stuart, Lehnert expressed that Stuart said “Washington loses about 23,000 acres of agricultural land each year to non-farm development, much of it to urban sprawl around Seattle. Washington has a system of property taxation based upon use rather than value, and some 75 percent of land now has value higher than its agricultural-use value.” That’s in Washington state. What about what’s going on in California?

In the Golden State, for every 9.4 people, an acre of land is being consumed by development. This startling revelation is among the findings of a new AFT “Paving Paradise: A New Perspective on California Farmland Conversion” study, as documented on the AFT website in “Paving Paradise: New AFT Study Details Statewide & Local Farmland Losses” (http://www.farmland.org/programs/states/ca/Feature%20Stories/PavingParad...).

Other study findings: