Washington, D.C., October 8, 2002—Atlanta isn’t the only Georgia city sprawling onto its surrounding farmland, according to a new study by American Farmland Trust.

Farming on the Edge: Sprawling Development Threatens America's Best Farmland finds that between 1992 and 1997, Georgia paved over 184,000 acres of high quality farmland, ranking third nationally in prime acres lost to development. The U.S. urbanized more than 6 million acres—an area approximately equal to the size of Maryland—during the same period.

“Even rural areas outside of smaller cities like Albany, Macon, Savannah and Tallahassee were impacted by the state’s staggering loss of farmland during the late 1990s,” said Gerry Cohn, American Farmland Trust’s Southeast regional director. “The problem has spread to some of the more economically depressed areas of the state that you wouldn’t normally think of as suffering from runaway growth.”

A state map included in the study shows that several of Georgia’s top food producing counties lie directly in the path of development.

“Many of the counties that contribute to Georgia’s reputation as a top producer of peaches, onions, pecans, and other foods face tremendous pressure from development,” Cohn said. “In addition to providing a source of fresh food, the farmland in these counties supplies water recharge areas, wildlife habitat and other important environmental benefits.”

As a remedy to the loss of farmland, the study calls for national, regional and local policy changes to redirect development away from high quality farmland.

In September, Georgia was allocated $1.4 million in federal Farmland Protection Program spending from the 2002 Farm Bill, the first time that Georgia participated in the program, which requires state or local matching dollars. One source of these matching dollars, the Georgia Greenspace Program, limits spending to the state’s most populated counties.

“The Georgia Greenspace Program does a great job of protecting open space and water quality in some counties, but it is not available to protect farmland throughout the state,” Cohn said. “It’s time for the state to create a program with a goal of protecting the land that supports Georgia’s agricultural economy.”

“Building housing developments on the edge of farms makes it more difficult for farmers, both in terms of rising taxes and in fending off neighbor complaints about noises and smells associated with agriculture,” said Russ Page, a cattle farmer from Oconee County. “ Land values have risen fifty percent over the last two years in our best farming areas, while the prices that farmers receive keep sinking.”

“Bulloch County informs potential residents that they’re moving into an agricultural area before they purchase a home in the county, but this still hasn't halted the spread of new development,” explained Mike Anderson, a member of Bulloch County Development Authority, Bulloch County Land Use Planning Committee, and president of Bulloch Fertilizer. “We’re squandering our most valuable agricultural assets on poorly planned, sprawling development."

American Farmland Trust’s Farming on the Edge study and maps of threatened farmland are available on American Farmland Trust’s Web site, http://www.farmland.org/

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American Farmland Trust is a private, nonprofit farmland conservation organization founded in 1980 to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment. Its action-oriented programs include public education, technical assistance in policy development and demonstration farmland protection projects. AFT’s Southeast Regional Office is located at 24 Court Square, NW, Suite 203, Graham, NC 27253. Phone: 336-221-0707. For more information, visit AFT's home page at www.farmland.org.