Pacific County beef production slid to 1,935 head in 2022, only about half as many as in 2017.

An existential threat facing the United States is the loss of farmland, and farmers and ranchers who work the land.

Data released earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the 2022 Census of Agriculture confirms that the U.S. lost 142,000 farms and 20 million acres of farmland since the last census in 2017.

In Pacific County, the number of farms fell to 290 in 2022, about a fifth fewer than in 2017. There also is a flashing warning signal when it comes to the number of farmers: 534 people in the county said they were farmers in 2022, down from 610 in 2017.

Farm acreage in the county decreased to about 44,000 in 2022, a drop of about 13 square miles in five years. Cranberries were a bright spot, with acreage increasing 22% and more getting into the business — there were 82 berry farms, up from 66 in 2017. But other types of farming and ranching dwindled, with beef and dairy production showing particular weakness.

Nationwide, the sad trend of farm losses has been going on for decades.

Pull Quote

‘This survey is essentially … asking the critical question of whether as a country are we OK with losing that many farms, are we OK with losing that much farmland or is there a better way?’

Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

In the 20 years since the 2002 census, the U.S. has lost a staggering 58,178,208 acres of farmland to industrial, commercial and residential developments. To put that in perspective, the state of Idaho measures out at just 55.5 million acres.

In releasing the figures, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack called the data “a wakeup call.”

“This survey is essentially … asking the critical question of whether as a country are we OK with losing that many farms, are we OK with losing that much farmland or is there a better way?” he said.

Vilsack has been beating the drum for several months. At the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention in January, Vilsack warned such losses would endanger the central pillars of American identity and democracy.

“I don’t think the country can stand the continued acceleration of the loss of small and mid-sized operations,” he said. “Are we OK with that? I’m not. I don’t think you are, either.”

As farms shut down, rural populations have dwindled enough to force school closures due to the lack of children, Vilsack said. Similarly, fewer shoppers mean small town commercial districts suffer, causing more family companies to go out of business.

While the impacts on rural America are significant in themselves, everyone in the country depends on the food and fiber produced by farms and farmers of all scales.

So far, farmers have been able to keep productivity growing in the face of diminishing resources. At some point, however, that won’t be the case.

We’ve pointed out in this space that government often works to hasten the loss, seeing farmland as an “unused” sites for housing and industrial development. Policy and regulatory actions also play a detrimental role.

While Vilsack rightly worries over the loss of farmland, the Biden administration and the governors of several states are moving with reckless haste to fill as much of it as they can with wind turbines and solar panels.

To bring the exigencies of the changing climate home to Americans, advocates for a host of policies note that the crisis will make feeding a growing world population more difficult. Why has there been no hue and cry over the ongoing threat to agricultural productivity that has been going unnoticed under everyone’s nose?

Where is the constant media beat warning the unwitting public of the imminent danger? Why is the cursory paragraph about the loss of food-producing ground not included in most every news story, as the obligatory references to climate change are today?

If this is a wakeup call, is anyone answering the alarm?