Excerpt
A lot has changed during the past decade in the way people look at land. In particular, new and difficult problems have been brought to the forefront that raise serious questions about land stewardship and the public policy choices that we must make to get to sustainable land use that is acceptable in the eyes of the public.
Several key questions must be answered soon if we are going to address this issue. First, we must decide whether we are going to continue to convert our best farmland at the current rate to nonagricultural uses, and, second, we must decide whether farm policy will continue to be the dominant intity available. For still others it's wildlife habitat and agricultural impacts, both positive and negative, on wildlife. But for many it's simply the scenic landscape-the dairy farms in the countryside, the painted barns when they take a Sunday afternoon drive to get out of the rat race of suburbia.
This realization of agriculture's impact on the physical and social environment has resulted in greater …
Footnotes
Ralph Grossi is president of the American Farmland Trust, 1920 N Street, N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20036. This article is based on his presentation at WCSS 46th annual meeting in Lexington, Kentucky.
- Copyright 1991 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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