In rural Yellow Springs, Ohio, concern over development prompted the town and local residents to buy a 930-acre farm to prevent new development. Absent the open-space acquisition, the land would likely have been developed for housing. New housing, while taking decades to achieve build-out, had the potential to significantly increase the population in the village and the surrounding area. Many feared the loss of the rural-village atmosphere that this development would have prompted. The nation's agricultural industry is healthy, and the nation remains an exporter of key crops, including rice, wheat, cotton, soybeans, and corn.
Agricultural productivity is at all time highs in the United States and in the world.
Ross Korves, Deputy Chief Economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, observes that the world agricultural yield is expected to increase by about 1.5 percent per year while world population growth is expected to fall from 1.2 percent be year in 2005 to 1 percent by 2015. Thus, food security is not a sufficient reason for promoting farmland preservation on the national, state, or local levels. Not surprisingly, a significant portion of the decline in farmland is attributed to lower demand for agricultural land. Luther Tweeten, an agricultural economist at Ohio State University, estimates that 74 percent of the decline in cropland nationwide can be explained by lower demand for agricultural products and uses. From 1982 to 1997, 28.9 percent of the total land used for rural and urban development was converted cropland.