Threat to high market value agricultural lands from urban encroachment: A national and regional perspecitve

A large proportion of the nation's cropland that produces high market value agricultural products is within close proximity to fast growing metropolitan areas. The conversion of high value cropland to urban land uses is taking place within and adjacent to metropolitan areas at the same time that cropland is increasing in nonmetropolitan areas with marginal lands. This study examines the spatial pattern of the nation's high market value cropland in relation to fast growing metropolitan regions, areas of increasing cropland, and areas with marginal lands. A case study of a rapidly urbanizing region in northern Illinois demonstrates the rate at which high value agricultural land is being lost to urban encroachment. The findings raise a number of policy questions that are difficult to address in the absence of national farmland protection policies.