COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio experienced a decrease of 128,486 acres of agricultural land; lost to development between 2001 and 2021.

The findings were published in a farmdoc daily report through the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

The data was sourced from the National Land Cover Database and examined agricultural land lost to development in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Carl Zulauf is a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at The Ohio State University.

Zulauf is an author of the report.

“[Ohio] lost about 2% of agricultural land between 2001 and 2021,” Zulauf said.

Agriculture expert Andy Vance discussed how farmers are affected by this trend.

“The land is the one thing they have to have to be able to do their job, so every acre that comes out of production, whether it’s for a house or a factory or something totally different, is an acre of ground that can’t be used to produce farm products like food and fuel and fiber and so on, so it’s something that draws a lot of passionate responses from farmers for a very good reason,” Vance said.

According to the report, while agricultural land was lost to urbanization, “other factors are also at play and need to be examined to fully understand the loss of agricultural land.”

If you have an idea for the Ag Report, a question for Chuck and Andy or you’d like to send a photo of your farm and the work you do, email charles.ringwalt@charter.com.