Source: NCDA&CS, 2/3/21


Education and zoning laws are just a few of the ways that local leaders in North Carolina are hoping to fight farmland loss.

Between 2001 and 2016, around 6.7 percent of North Carolina’s total farmland was converted into residential and commercial land. That is the second highest percentage in the country during that time, and it accounts for over 730,000 acres of lost farmland. Much of that loss can be attributed to low-density residential development, a type of spread-out, sprawling construction which eats up land while providing relatively less tax revenue than commercial development or agricultural land.

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