That attitude's typical in many cities. More than half the food grown in the United States, and 80 percent of dairy products, comes from counties in or next to urban areas. During the '90s, the rate of conversion of farmland near cities to urban uses was double the rate in the '80s. From 1982 to 1992, North Carolina was the No. 2 state in the amount of prime or unique farmland that was developed. A third of all the N.C. land developed 1982-92 was prime farmland.
Numerous studies show that farmland pays more in taxes than it takes in government services.
Even so, cities can, and do, destroy farms almost without thinking. Farmers know this, and that's one reason many of them fear governments. Put in water-sewer lines, annex the land or just build a school there. Yet local governments tend to act as if farming simply doesn't exist, or matter. Owen Furuseth of UNCCharlotte's geography department, a land preservation expert, said he has worked with governments in this area for 20 years.