America is losing rural farm and forest land… some of it the best farmland in the world… at an alarming rate, the equivalent of losing the entire states of Connecticut and Vermont over a six-year period.

Bob Wagner, the Senior Director for Farmland Protection Programs at the American Farmland Trust, spoke to attendees of the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. today and told the group that between 1997 and 2003, America lost 10.5 million acres of farmland and forest.

“Being taken out of production PERMANENTLY!” And Wagner pointed out that this isn’t land that is being retired into some conservation program. He says it is going into commercial development and rural residential developments.

Wagner said the trend does not have to be irreversible. The federal government can help state and local governments by giving them incentives for sustainable growth to lessen the impact on farmland. And the feds need to stop encouraging some unintended consequences.

“We need to get the federal government out of stimulating the development of farmland through highway projects and sewer construction [that makes those areas more attractive to uses other than production agriculture].”

He said more federal funding of conservation easements can protect that good farmland from being lost forever.

Wagner added that the current credit crunch could help stem some of the short term encroachment on American farmland but pointed out that over the last 30 years, even with a number of recessions, we still have lost too much land.

Hear my entire conversation with Bob here: Wagner1.mp3

Download the audio here. (mp3)