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Is There Evidence of a Critical Mass in the Mid-Atlantic Agriculture Sector Between 1949 and 1997?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Lori Lynch  and
Janet Carpenter
Lori Lynch
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland
Janet Carpenter
Affiliation:
U.S. Agency for International Development. Support for this project was provided by the Maryland Center for Agro-Ecology, Inc.
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Abstract

Ongoing farmland loss has led county planners to ask “is there a critical mass of farmland needed?” to retain a viable agricultural sector. This study examines whether counties lost farmland at a faster rate if the number of agricultural acres fell below a critical threshold. Results from six Mid-Atlantic states over the period 1949 to 1997 indicate that counties with fewer agricultural acres lost farmland at a faster rate. However, after splitting the study period into two time segments (1949–1978 and 1978–1997) and modeling separately, this result was not found for the later time period, suggesting a uniform critical mass level may not exist. Population growth in a county accelerated farmland loss over all time periods.

Keywords

critical massdevelopment pressurefarmland losspanel datause-value taxation
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , April 2003 , pp. 116 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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