Chapter 3 - Farmland Conservation

Across the United States, farmland is being lost to development and conversion to other land uses. American Farmland Trust (AFT) reports that 31 million acres of agricultural land nationally were lost to development between 1992 and 2012. Such losses are usually irreversible. AFT also reports that development disproportionately affects agricultural lands—more than 70 percent of urban development takes place on agricultural land.1 These trends are reflected in Snohomish County as well. For example, the USDA Census of Agriculture reported that land in farming in Snohomish County shrank from 70,863 acres in 2012 to 63,671 acres in 2007. These numbers don’t represent the additional impact of losing larger farms to smaller, often non-commercial, farming uses. Pressures on the agricultural land base are increasing as the population of the county rises—Everett is among the fastest growing cities in Washington State—a population that could be fed by locally grown food if it was available.