THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Vice President
VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE RELEASES NEW FIGURES SHOWING
ACCELERATED LOSS OF FARMLAND TO DEVELOPMENT
Proposes Increased Funding for Voluntary Programs to Protect Threatened
Farms
Washington, DC -- Vice President Al Gore today released new figures showing that the conversion of farmland and other open space to development more than doubled in recent years. The Vice President said the Administration will seek a significant increase in funding for voluntary programs to preserve farms threatened by sprawl.
The new figures, contained in the USDA's 1997 National Resources Inventory, show that nationally nearly 16 million acres of forest, cropland, and open space were converted to urban and other uses from 1992 to 1997. The average rate for those five years -- 3.2 million acres a year -- is more than twice the rate of 1.4 million acres a year recorded from 1982 to 1992.
"These new figures confirm what communities across America already know -- too much of our precious open space is being gobbled up by sprawl," Vice President Al Gore said. "We need to help communities grow in ways that work. We can build more livable communities, with a strong economy and a high quality of life, without forcing family farmers off the farm."
The Vice President said the new figures show that the loss of farmland is no longer centered predominantly around major metropolitan areas, but is affecting growing numbers of small- and mid-sized cities in virtually every part of the country.
States with the highest acreage conversion rates include: California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas (State chart attached).
While the conversion of agricultural land does not threaten America's food supply, haphazard development patterns result in the fragmentation of agricultural land, the loss of family farms that raise fresh produce for urban markets, and the elimination of vital open spaces, the Vice President said.
"Every time a farmer is squeezed off the land, a valuable way of life is eroded," the Vice President said. "We can help preserve our communities, and our environment, by keeping farmers on the land."
The Vice President said the Administration's FY 2001 budget would propose a significant increase for USDA's Farmland Protection Program, which provides resources to state and local governments to enter into voluntary agreements with farmers to preserve farmland. Typically, the funds are used to purchase "conservation easements" that ensure that farmland remains in agriculture and is not developed.
"This voluntary program is enormously popular -- for every dollar available, we have $10 in requests from state and local governments. Yet Congress has repeatedly denied the Administration's requests for increased funding," the Vice President said. "We will again call on Congress to give farmers, and their communities, the help they need."
The Vice President said the Administration will also continue to help communities address sprawl through its Livable Communities initiative, a broad array of programs that provide tools and resources to help ease traffic congestion, protect open space, revitalize urban neighborhoods, and strengthening local economies.
"Our role is to expand the choices available to communities -- not to dictate solutions," the Vice President said. "By providing new tools and resources, we can help communities create the future they want."
The full National Resources Inventory will be released Tuesday, December 7th by Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman at the National Summit on Private Lands Conservation in Ames, Iowa. The summit, hosted by USDA, will examine conservation and forestry issues facing the nation's private lands and gather ideas for targeting federal assistance.
The resources inventory covers non-federal land in the United States -- some 75 percent of the country's land base -- and is conducted every five years by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in cooperation with Iowa State University. It captures data from 800,000 statistically selected locations on land cover, land use, soil erosion, prime farmland, wetlands, habitat diversity, selected conservation practices, and other natural resource information. The information is statistically reliable for national, regional, statewide and multi-county use. NRI land conversion information is available on the web at <http:www.nrcs.usda.gov>.
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NRI: Land Conversion Rates by State
Sorted by Average Annual Acres Developed between 1992-1997
1992-1997 1992-1997 1992-1997 1982-1992 1982-1992 1982-1992
Change in Average Change in Average
RANK State Total Annual RANK Total Annual
Land Land
Developed Conversion Developed Conversion
Acres Rate (acres) Acres Rate (acres)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Texas 1
1,219,500 243,900 1,392,500 139,250
2 Pennsylvania 10
1,123,200 224,640 431,100 43,110
3 Georgia 5
1,053,200 210,640 766,300 76,630
4 Florida 2
945,300 189,060 1,163,100 116,310
5 North 3
Carolina 781,500 156,300 935,800 93,580
6 California 4
694,800 138,960 800,200 80,020
7 Tennessee 9
611,600 122,320 441,100 44,110
8 Michigan 7
550,800 110,160 462,300 46,230
9 South 11
Carolina 539,700 107,940 400,100 40,010
10 Ohio 6
521,200 104,240 468,600 46,860
11 New York 24
492,400 98,480 225,100 22,510
12 Virginia 8
467,200 93,440 453,600 45,360
13 Alabama 14
445,300 89,060 320,900 32,090
14 Kentucky 13
354,100 70,820 362,800 36,280
15 Washington 17
350,000 70,000 288,300 28,830
16 New Mexico 26
348,500 69,700 166,300 16,630
17 Mississippi 31
312,600 62,520 144,300 14,430
18 Minnesota 21
311,300 62,260 235,600 23,560
19 Missouri 25
310,500 62,100 204,500 20,450
20 Illinois 20
292,200 58,440 246,000 24,600
21 New Jersey 16
283,200 56,640 298,600 29,860
22 Wisconsin 19
282,800 56,560 247,600 24,760
23 Mass. 22
281,500 56,300 233,100 23,310
24 West 34
Virginia 275,600 55,120 114,100 11,410
25 Indiana 23
274,400 54,880 228,300 22,830
26 Arkansas 36
237,200 47,440 95,800 9,580
27 Oklahoma 28
224,500 44,900 156,800 15,680
28 Maryland 30
222,300 44,460 146,900 14,690
29 Arizona 12
199,400 39,880 374,600 37,460
30 Kansas 33
192,500 38,500 117,000 11,700
31 Louisiana 18
172,100 34,420 263,200 26,320
32 Maine 37
167,800 33,560 92,500 9,250
33 Puerto Rico 32
153,100 30,620 124,600 12,460
34 Oregon 27
150,400 30,080 164,500 16,450
35 Montana 42
122,700 24,540 79,600 7,960
36 Idaho 39
120,800 24,160 85,900 8,590
37 Colorado 15
120,300 24,060 307,400 30,740
38 New 29
Hampshire 107,300 21,460 149,200 14,920
39 Utah 35
105,100 21,020 106,900 10,690
40 Iowa 45
102,900 20,580 52,300 5,230
41 Nebraska 46
81,200 16,240 39,200 3,920
42 South Dakota 44
76,700 15,340 60,600 6,060
43 Connecticut 40
63,400 12,680 84,200 8,420
44 Wyoming 48
52,700 10,540 33,700 3,370
45 North Dakota 38
49,700 9,940 86,000 8,600
46 Nevada 41
41,500 8,300 82,700 8,270
47 Delaware 47
35,100 7,020 35,300 3,530
48 Vermont 43
26,000 5,200 64,900 6,490
49 Rhode Island 49
10,200 2,040 26,500 2,650
50 Hawaii 50
8,700 1,740 23,600 2,360
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total
5,966,000 3,193,200 13,884,100 1,388,410
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