Growth control advocates would have us believe that our supplies of valuable farmland are being “goobled up” by the rampant expansion of our cities.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

                                                        Urban areas are relatively small   

 Urban areas occupy only a small percentage of total land area.  Nationally, the percentage of American land used as cropland has not changed since 1945^[i].  Then and now, cropland was and is 24 percent of the country’s land area.  Despite all the rhetoric about an “urban sprawl crisis”, the has developed less than five percent of its total land area, with 71 percent used for cropland, pastureland, rangeland, forestland, and minor uses.²  

In North Carolina , the picture is the same.  While growth control advocates prefer the “estimate” that the amount of developed land area in North Carolina may be as high as 10.5 percent,³ actual measurements reveal that only 4.65 percent of the State’s land area is developed.⁴ Approximately 74 percent of North Carolina ’s land area is occupied by cropland, pastureland, rangeland, forestland, and minor uses.⁵  

 Land-Use Conversion Rates are Sustainable  

Nationally, the rate of increase in urban areas is slowing.  The USDA reports that from 1987 to 1992, the rate of growth of urban areas in the United States was 0.8 percent - the lowest in nearly 50 years - compared to 5.5 percent for 1945-1949, 9.1 percent for 1954-1959, and 6.9 percent for 1974-1978.⁶  Indeed, even more recent data reveal that while the area of all central cities increased 10.6 percent from 1990 to 2000, the land area occupied by suburbs actually decreased 0.5 percent over that same period⁷.   

Out of the 1.9 billion acres of land in the U.S. (excluding Alaska and D.C.), only 92 million acres (4.8%) are developed.⁸  The Sierra Club estimates that the US converts 400,000 acres of land per year to developed use.⁹  If that pace was sustained for the next 50 years, developed acreage would increase from 4.8 to only 5.9 percent of total land area.  

As stated previously, only 5 percent of the land area in the is developed while 71 percent is occupied by cropland, pastureland, rangeland, forestland, and minor uses (excluding federal holdings and water).  In other words, nationally there are 14 acres of open space for every one acre of developed land.   

Significantly, the acreage dedicated to national parks and wildlife refuges is significantly greater than the acreage occupied by urban uses.¹⁰  What’s more, the rate of increase in parks and recreation areas is greater than for urban areas.  Between 1959 and 1992, urban land increased from 27 million acres to 58 million acres - a 115 percent increase.  Over that same period, the amount of land in rural parks and wildlife areas increased from 32 million acres to 87 million acres - an increase of 172 percent!¹¹      

In North Carolina , fully 74 percent of the land area is occupied by cropland, pastureland, rangeland, forestland, and minor uses.  Even if one accepts the estimate that 10.5 percent of North Carolina is developed, there are more than seven acres of open space for every one acre of developed land in North Carolina, and at the measured value of 4.65 percent developed land area in North Carolina, there are nearly 16 acres of open space for every one acre of developed land in North Carolina.   

 While the total amount of farmland in North Carolina decreased 12.6 percent (1.3 million acres) over the last 10 years and while total cropland decreased approximately seven percent (401,000 acres) over the last decade, harvested cropland actually increased 14.6 percent (552,000 acres) over that same period.¹²  As opponents of urban growth are quick to point out, the amount of land occupied by urban areas has indeed increased; in fact, it has tripled - but from approximately only 1.5 percent in 1945 to a mere 4.65 percent in 1992.^{13 14} 

 Agricultural Production is not in Jeopardy

 Riggle and Tolman (1999) report that 24 percent of the nation’s land area is occupied by cropland.  Another estimate places that figure at 19.7 percent with 6.5 percent in pastureland.¹⁵  Even at this lower figure, the US Department of Agriculture reports that “farmland conversion does not pose a threat to the nation’s ability to produce food and fiber.”¹⁶  Moreover, only about one percent of all prime land (and about 0.6 percent of all non-prime land) was converted to urban use between 1982 and 1992.¹⁷  Of cropland lost from 1949 to 1992, 74 percent was due to changes in farm population and income, while only 26 percent was due to urbanization.¹⁸  

Farmers continue to grow more food on less land.  Agricultural productivity has increased 245 percent since World War II and continues to increase.¹⁹   

Population Growth Outpaces Land Consumption  

Between 1945 and 1992, the population of the and North Carolina increased 92 percent and 93 percent, respectively.²⁰  Over that same time period, developed land increased 43 percent nationally and 83 percent in North Carolina.²¹  Even with North Carolina ’s phenomenal population growth, the amount of land used per capita decreased. 
 

                                The “crisis in farmland and open space” is only an illusion  
 

Eighty percent of Americans and 67 percent of North Carolinians now live in metropolitan areas.²² Accordingly, these urban dwellers may have a tendency to underestimate the amount of actual open space and farmland acreage and thus skew their perception of actual farmland and open space conversions.