There is a public expectation that if the nation’s most valuable farm land is absorbed by urban or suburban uses, it will be replaced with other land in this or other countries or with new technologies that will maintain productivity
"The reality is that we don’t know whether new technologies will keep pace," says American Farmland Trust President Ralph Grossi. "What we do know is that whatever those technologies will be, it is likely that they will be more efficiently applied on productive land than on marginal land where higher levels of energy, fertilizer, chemicals and labor per unit of output are required," he told USDA’s ag forum.
"Simply put," he added, "it is in the nation’s best interest to keep the best land for farming as an insurance policy against the challenge of feeding an expanding population in the 21st century."