It’s all about access
There’s a whole lot of people out there that want to start farming. A generation or two removed from the land and we want to go back. That says something. But that’s for another post.
If you live around a metro area and travel to the outskirts, you’ll notice signs selling farmland for development. Some old farmers, not having anyone to pass their operations on to, make a lot of cash off of letting people turn soil into strip malls.
There’s a movement out there to prevent that. Groups of people across the country are creating agriculture easements. These easements basically keep the ground in the hands of some farmers for perpetuity.
I’ve watched as Champaign, a medium-sized central Illinois town, has marched northward, eating what was once farmland. The farmhouses standout against Ruby Tuesday’s and ticky-tacky suburbs without lawns.
I think this line from a Grist article says it all.
For the 80 percent of Americans who reside in cities, it has become far too easy to take farmland for granted.
I would venture that it goes beyond taking farmland for granted. I think most people, myself included, give almost no thought to the absolute necessity of agriculture.