Loss of US Farmland in the 21st Century: The National Perspective from the Census of Agriculture

Carl Zulauf, Gary Schnitkey, Jonathan Coppess and Nick Paulson

farmdoc daily, 2025, vol. 14, issue 169

Abstract: One of the widely-watched variables tracked by the US Census of Agriculture is land in farms. This article is the first of two that examines changes in land in US farms between the Agricultural Censuses of 1997 and 2022. This quarter-century period is of interest because the 1996 Farm Bill enacted a fundamental change to US farm policy by eliminating acreage set aside programs that in various forms had existed since modern US farm support policy began in 1933, thus giving farmers, with a few exceptions, the freedom to decide what crops to plant and not plant. Since this seminal change in US farm policy, land in US farms has declined by 74.7 million acres or -8%. By far, pastureland declined the most, accounting for 88% of the total decline. The other two major farmland categories also declined: woodland by -6% and cropland by -2%.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Gardner Policy Series; Grain Outlook; Long-Term Outlook (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:illufd:358437

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.358437

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