North Carolina’s top agriculture official is sounding the alarm over a "disappearing" landscape. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler told state leaders on Wednesday that North Carolina is losing a staggering 100,000 acres of farmland and forest to development every single year.
Troxler says the state now ranks second in the nation for projected farmland loss, trailing only Texas. He’s calling on lawmakers to earmark more money for preservation trusts that pay farmers to keep their land in production rather than selling to developers.
With agriculture fueling a $111 billion dollar state economy, Troxler warns that if the land goes, the industry goes with it. He calls the crisis the single greatest threat to the future of North Carolina farming.
