Nationwide, farmers only own 60% of the land they farm. In many of the most productive row cropping areas of the Midwest, the percent of farmer-owned land is significantly lower (see Map above from the USDA, 2007 Census of Agriculture). Much of our farmland resource is owned by non-farmers and rented to those who actually farm. Some of that rented land is owned by investors or real estate speculators, but most of it is actually still owned by the descendants of the families who used to farm it, often several generations back. These are the families who have been part of the steady trend of urban migration for more than a century.
Why Does Farm Ownership Matter? This ownership question is important for several reasons. US agriculture not only supplies our domestic needs for many crops, but we are also among the major grain exporters of the world. Our farmers, and our farmland owners, play an important role in determining whether we will be able to supply the increasing, global demand for food. Land ownership is also a key issue for agricultural sustainability. The most sustainable row crop farming practices can actually “pay their own way,” but they do so over time by building soil quality. Those soil changes are at the heart of the environmental benefits, but they also increase the productive potential and yield stability of the land...by definition, sustainable farming must involve a long-term perspective. Many of the people who are in the key role of farmland ownership don’t know much of anything about farming of any kind, let alone what constitutes the cutting edge of sustainability. Therein lies both the challenge and the opportunity.
Read full and comment: http://blog.sustainablog.org/2011/11/who-owns-americas-farmland/
A more detailed analysis of this issue is posted on SCRIBD.
And source website is Applied Mythology.
