Comments on: The Loss of Farmlands: A Loss for All of Us https://care4suffolk.org/2024/02/21/the-loss-of-farmlands-a-loss-for-all-of-us/ Thu, 03 Oct 2024 19:00:09 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 By: Joseph Knowles https://care4suffolk.org/2024/02/21/the-loss-of-farmlands-a-loss-for-all-of-us/#comment-1777 Thu, 03 Oct 2024 19:00:09 +0000 https://care4suffolk.org/?p=3412#comment-1777 For the sake of context, this article should include the fact that a decrease in the total amount of farmland is independent from the total level of agricultural production. According to the US Department of Agriculture, U.S. agricultural productivity increased at a rate of 1.46 percent per year from 1948 to 2021 at the same time that the amount of land and labor used for farming declined at annual rates of 0.45 percent and 1.93 percent, respectively. Thus, despite a decline in total land area dedicated to farming since 1948, total production today is nearly three times what it was then. (Source: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2024/september/u-s-agriculture-production-grew-steadily-from-1948-to-2021-as-productivity-increased/)

Even if it is true that “nearly all new food production in the next 25 years will have to come from existing agricultural land” this is far from an insurmountable problem. Farmers have been increasingly producing more with less, and they’ve been doing it for longer than most of Suffolk’s residents have been alive. This phenomenon shows no signs of stopping.

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