From Cornfields to Concrete: The Midwest Dilemma

“Ope… let me scoot past ya here to buy up some of your farmland.” – Developers in the Midwest

Picking up losses: Farmland loss in the Midwest is a growing issue. In the past two decades, 1.6M acres of farmland was lost, with more than half of that due to development.

Farmland fades to sprawl: Data from the National Land Cover Database said there were 150.3M acres of farmland in 2001 in the Midwest. In 2021, that number dropped to 148.7M acres. About 55% of the lost ag land was converted into developments. Did someone say, “urban sprawl?”

“The role of large urban areas is paramount, as 81% of land lost to development in the eight states occurred within metropolitan statistical areas,” according to a group of Ohio State analysts. Metro areas are regions with a core city of at least 50K people.

Winning the gold you don’t want to win: The states in the analysis included Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Iowa saw the largest percentage of loss because of development, at 90%. But by the same token, Iowa, Michigan and Missouri lost the least amount in terms of acres. Illinois brought home the gold in acres lost at 155,653. (They didn’t want to get on the podium.) Wisconsin has also been hit hard—losing nearly 4% of farmland, one in 10 farms, and one in three dairies between 2017 and 2022.

Outbid and out of luck: This trend is impacting farmers, especially young and first-time farmers, in their ability to purchase additional land, since they’re being outbid. According to a 2022 National Young Farmers Coalition survey, 59% of farmers under 40 said finding affordable land was “very or extremely challenging.”

But then there’s this: On the flip side, investment companies like Farmland Partners out of Denver say they aren’t to blame. According to Paul Pittman, executive chairman of Farmland Partners, “Remember, for every farmer who is whining about being outbid, there’s a farm family that owned that farm for 100 years and deserves to get the highest price possible.” 

Whatever it is, please don’t take all the farmland from the Midwest. We need our hot dishes.