An op-ed in the San Antonio Express-News warns that “asphalt is the last crop,” meaning once a farm is paved over, it can never be farmed again. “Every 10 years, Texas loses approximately 1 million acres of prime agricultural lands to development,” the article warns. Written by Bob McCan, who chairs the Texas Agricultural Land Trust, the article encourages farmers and ranchers to put their lands into conservation easements.
In case McCan hasn’t noticed, someone should tell him Texas is a big place. According to the USDA National Resources Inventory, it has nearly 138 million acres of private agricultural land, not counting 14 million acres of forest land, 3 million acres of federal land, and more than 2 million acres of “other rural land.” Fewer than 7 million acres of the state have been urbanized and only about 2 million more have been developed into such things as small settlements, rural roads, and railroads.
Of the 138 million acres of ag land, farmers grow crops on only about 24 million acres. The rest is range and pastureland. That 24 million is less than it was a few decades ago, but more because the per-acre yields of most crops are growing faster than the nation’s population than because any acres have been paved over. Continue reading
