The Other Side of Sprawl A County-Level Analysis of Farm Loss in Florida

Even as ex-urban population growth has shifted attention to possible economic revitalization, rural communities in the U.S. continue to exhibit long-standing trends of agricultural decline. This article focuses on the nature and extent of farm losses in the rapidly urbanizing state of Florida. It aims to provide a rural perspective on contemporary concerns with urban sprawl, and contrast national-level studies of farm decline with regional understandings. Recent county-level changes in farm proprietorship are measured in terms of the difference in number of farms between 1997 and 2002. This change is related through regression models to four categories of explanatory factors: degree of urbanization, farm operator demographics, economic characteristics, and agrarian land use characteristics. A detailed understanding of agricultural decline is obtained by contrasting variables that significantly affect likelihood of farm loss across all counties with those that influence magnitude of farm loss among counties experiencing decline.