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Between 1967 and 1975, United States cropland declined 30.5 million acres, of which 8 million acres were prime farmland. The rising gross farm product continues to outweigh such losses owing to short-term adjustments such as irrigation, but longer-term measures to conserve farmland are widely urged. Even Iowa, where urban growth is modest, is incurring some loss of superior farmland. Experience in other states offers certain lessons to Iowa: discourage unnecessary municipal annexations; evaluate the impact of public investments on farmland; expand tax preferences for agriculture; and assist counties to improve their land planning and regulatory efforts.
Notes
∗This paper grew out of an address to the George Washington Carver Symposium on Land Use, Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa, April 7, 1979.