American Farmland Trust

Abstract

AFT Ohio Field Office In 1997, American Farmland Trust identified Northeastern Ohio (Eastern Ohio Till Plain) as the seventh most threatened farming region in the nation. This means that the area was determined to have some of our nation’s best soils and at the same time this area is experiencing immense development pressure. This loss affects not only rural areas, but our city center and older suburbs too. These places have declining numbers of households and household income, while population and funding for infrastructure goes to the new suburbs. For example, Cuyahoga County lost 18% of its residents between 1970 and 1990. The state as a whole is losing farmland as well. Between 1987 and 1997, Ohio lost a total of 363,100 acres of prime, unique and locally important farmland to sprawling development—that’s an area approximately the size of two Ohio counties! These days, Ohio ranks second only to Texas in the amount of prime farmland lost to development. Because of these reasons listed above, AFT opened the Ohio Field Office in 1997. Some recent activities undertaken by the Ohio Field Office include: