Productive Working farms

Farming families strengthen our region.

western reserve land conservancy map

We cherish our region's working farms for their beauty, their life-giving produce and their traditions. We respect our region's farmers for their work, for their values, for their sacrifices, and for their deep wisdom. We have faith that they will be there for us, and respect their devotion to the land and to the profession.

 

 

Farm facts from Ohiofarms

Agriculture is Ohio's No. 1 industry, contributing more than $78 billion to our state economy and supporting one in six jobs.

  • Almost 50 percent of the land in Ohio is classified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as "prime farmland," which is the most fertile and productive land in the country.
  • Ohio has the fifth highest percentage of "prime farmland" in the nation.
  • Ohio has lost more high-quality acres of farmland than any state other than Texas.
  • An average of 394 acres of farmland disappears every day in Ohio.
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  • The agriculture and food industry sector account for 16 percent of our state's total employment.
  • Ohio has more than 1,000 food processing plants.
  • Ohio farmers grow more than 200 crops. Corn and soybeans are the top crops.
  • Ninety-one percent of Ohio farms are family farms.
  • Ohio leads the nation in the production of Swiss cheese and is second in the production of eggs, producing 7.6 billion in 2003.

Cement is the last crop

farms

 

 

Perhaps the worst aspect of farmland loss is that once prime farming soils are paved, they are lost forever. We feel this in Ohio.

Since 1950, Ohio has lost about seven million acres of farmland. To put this in perspective, Western Reserve Land Conservancy's entire 14-county service area (home to four million people) encompasses four million acres.

 

Since 1950, the nine-county Northeast Ohio region has lost more than 700,000 acres of farmland. This is an area equivalent to the size of Cuyahoga, Geauga and Lake counties combined.

In the 1990s, Ohio had one of the slowest population growth rates in the nation, but one of the highest rates of farmland converted to urban uses.

 

 

Every year, we feel the loss of farmland. At the national level:

  • Every single minute of every day, America loses two acres of farmland. From 1992 to 1997, we converted more than six million acres of agricultural land to developed uses – an area the size of Maryland.
  • We lost farm and ranch land 51 percent faster in the 1990s than in the 1980s.
  • We're losing our best land – the most fertile and productive – the fastest. The rate of conversion of prime land was 30 percent faster than the rate for non-prime rural land from 1992-1997. This results in marginal land, requiring more resources like water, being put into production.
  • Wasteful land use is the problem, not growth itself. From 1982-1997, US population grew by 17 percent, while urbanized land grew by 47 percent. Over the past 20 years, the acreage per person for new housing has almost doubled. Since 1994, 10-acre-plus housing lots have accounted for 55 percent of the land developed.
  • Every state is losing some of its best farmland. Texas leads the nation in high quality acres lost, followed closely by Ohio, Georgia and North Carolina.

Click here to learn more about how you can get involved to help preserve our region's working farms.