It’s not often that our morning commute gets us excited for the workday.  But today we heard a story on the radio that caused us to bump up the speedometer a bit.  The story was titled “Farmers Take Back Land Slated for Housing.”

Over the past 30 years, land development trends have been such that farmland has been lost to development at an ever-increasing rate.  In fact, between 1982 and 2007 the US lost more than an acre of farmland every minute.  When the housing bubble burst in 2008, that process was stopped.  In many ways, the burst has been a tragedy with the millions of homeowners who faced foreclosure.  However, one silver lining that has appeared has been the return of lands slated for development back to farmland.

Indeed, in the story we heard this morning, one farmer who sold his land to a developer for $80,000 an acre has since bought it back at a heavily discounted $18,500 an acre and has returned it to agricultural use.  Further, more and more young farmers are entering the field by leasing lands and living on the profits they make from selling high-value commodities like cotton and hay.  We encourage you to have a listen by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Pam Brophy