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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President


For Immediate Release December 6, 1999
          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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