The Loss of the Family Farm

 

See the picture below.     It is a photo of a painting that hangs in the living room of our  home.    

It is a picture of the first home where I lived after my parents brought me home  from the hospital after I was born.   The house where my parents lived at the time of my birth was actually my maternal Grandparents home.   It was located outside of my hometown of Burlington North Carolina.   In the land behind the farm was a small family farm where my grandfather farmed the land.   That land is not a farm anymore.   In my toddler years was when the interstate highway system began in the United States.    Today,  8 lanes of Interstate 85 and Interstate 40 goes through the middle of the land that was once my grandparents family farm.    Another portion of the old family farm is where a Home Depot welcomes customers today.  

I see the loss of farmland also  in the community outside of Charlotte where I currently live.    My wife and I live in a subdivision that once was part of a family farm that was once owned by a man who I had the privilege to officiate at his funeral when I served as his pastor back in the 1990’s. .   Down the road,  a local public school sits on land where cattle once grazed and roamed.   

I share these observations and truths to make a point:   farmland and family farms are disappearing across the United States.   Yahoo finance reported in 2022 that the 2020 census showed that 1.9 million acres of farmland in the United States had disappeared largely through urbanization.    The article reported that the leading states where this has been happening is in Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma.    In 2023, the American Farmland Trust reported that in my home state of North Carolina that 55 acres of farmland is lost EACH DAY.   At this rate,   they believe that 1.2 million acres of farmland will be lost by 2040 in NC.  

Perhaps some of you are wondering why this loss of farmland or family farms should concern you.   Am I just being  nostalgic and seeking for the clock to turn back to a former time?    Is the loss of farmland simply something that has to happen for progress and community growth to happen?  Perhaps the loss of farmland is progress, but what price is being paid for that progress?

This farmland was used to produce crops and livestock that feed us.   Will the loss of farmland mean that someday that the only producer of our food is a large corporation or conglomerate?     Will the future hold the prospects of importing the food we eat like we do the clothing we wear and the textiles we use?      This farmland is also home to wildlife like birds,  deer, rabbits, and creatures.   Where will these creatures of God go?       Do we really want to live in a world where our children can only see crops or livestock in a grocery store or a can, and cannot have the experience to experience the sight and culture of a farm?      These are a few questions that I have, and I suspect there are only the tip of the iceberg of questions that could be raised by church, local, state, and national leaders.    Thanks for reading.   Have a joy-filled day.   -     Randy L. Wall

Prayer-   God, you have created us and all creation.     Give us wisdom as we face the challenges of these days of how to be good stewards of this world you have given;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.