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- Info
The farm and the city: Rivals or allies?
| Author: |
The America Assembly, Columbia University |
| Date: |
1980 |
| Periodical: |
The America Assembly, Columbia University. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. |
| Abstract: |
In the years following World War II, the patterns of life and the patterns of land use in the United States changed dramatically. The population, which before the war had been distributed very largely in the cities and on the farms, moved in massive numbers to the suburbs. Single-family dwellings on small plots of land housed an increasing number of American households. The center cities lost not only population, but also industries, as corporations followed their employees outside the city limits. With both these losses, they also lost substantial tax base and, hence, operating revenues. The farms, which had been losing population as mechanization increased, accounted for less than 4 percent of the nation's population by the end of the 1970s. Most of those who left the farms, like those who left the cities, moved to suburbia or exurbia.
At the same time, prime farmland was voraciously consumed in real estate development for the suburbs. While statistics vary, it has been authoritatively estimated that by the end of the 1970s, prime farmland in the nation was down to about 380 million acres. Much of the impulse which led to this change in the demographic patterns of the United States came from government actions responding to the growing political power of the suburbs. Road building, mortgage guarantees, subsidies, tax policies, and other forms of government influence accelerated the changes throughout the postwar period. However, by the beginning of the 1980s, other influences were at work. The end of the baby boom, two-income families, gasoline shortages, inflation, and high mortgage rates were making the suburbs less attractive to a new generation of Americans. Moreover, there was increasing concern among many sectors of the population about the consequences which would flow from further loss of prime agricultural land. Several governmental jurisdictions have attempted, through various means, to preserve farmland. In order to assess this changing situation and to recommend public policy, a group of distinguished Americans met at Arden House in Harriman, New York, from April 10 to 13, 1980, to participate in the Fifty-eighth American Assembly, which was entitled "The Farm and the City." Dr. A. M. Woodruff, President Emeritus of the University of Hartford, acted as director of this Assembly, and, under his editorial supervision, background papers were prepared for the use of the participants. These papers have been compiled into the present volume, which is published as a stimulus to further thinking about and discussion of this subject among informed and concerned citizens. The opinions expressed in these chapters are those of the individual authors and not necessarily those of The American Assembly, which takes no stand on the topics it presents for public discussion, nor of The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, which sponsored this Assembly.
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