WASHINGTON, D.C. (RFD NEWS) — Farmland is disappearing across the United States as development and other pressures reduce the amount of land available for agriculture.
American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall says competition for farmland is growing as housing, businesses, solar projects, and data centers expand.
“Development can bring jobs and investment, but we must consider the long-term impact,” Duvall said. “Once farmland is covered by roads, buildings, or infrastructure, it is unlikely to return to agriculture. The best way to preserve farmland is to make sure farmers and ranchers can afford to keep farming it.”
Duvall says high land values and difficult farm economics can make it harder for farmers to buy or rent land, while also making development offers harder for farm families to turn down.
Farm Bureau’s land-use analysis shows that developed land in the U.S. increased by 47.6 million acres from 1982 to 2022, while cropland declined by 55.7 million acres during the same period.
Those figures reflect broader changes in U.S. land use and should not be interpreted as a one-for-one conversion of cropland into developed land.
The number of U.S. farms is also declining.
USDA reported 1.88 million farms in 2024, down 8 percent from 2.04 million in 2017. Farmland also declined from 900 million acres in 2017 to 876 million acres in 2024.
The trends highlight the growing competition for agricultural land as development expands and farm families face economic pressure to keep land in production.
