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U.S. cropland urbanization, and landownership patterns

Author: Gustafson, Greg C.; Bills, Nelson L.
Date: 1984
Periodical: Agricultural Economic Report 520. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service
Abstract: Most U.S. farmland is in no danger of being overrun by urban sprawl. Less than 24 percent of U.S. cropland is in metropolitan counties. Cropland in the Northeast is under more urban pressure than elsewhere because more than three-fourths of it is within or adjacent to urban counties. Ownership patterns of cropland are also different in metropolitan counties, with a higher proportion held in small parcels, by nonfarmers, and by nonfamily corporations than in rural areas. Such differences in ownership patterns may presage conversion of cropland to other uses.


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