Loss of farmlands discussion at Thrive Tri-State Summit

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Panels at the Thrive Tri-State met to discuss the high stakes of disappearing farmland. 

As farms are the beating heart of landscape across the country, they are also continuing to be at risk as corporations are slowly invading these rural areas.

Jessica Wilson stated that the “state of Tennessee is seeing a whole lot of farmlands

lost due to development pressure and people moving into the state and rising.”

According to the American Farmland Trust, farmland areas are expected to lose over 150,000 acres to corporate developments in the next 20 years. 

Wilson also stated that “with people moving into the state when that is not planned and when the development is not planned on a local level, [we will] oftentimes [see] farmland is the first thing to be lost to unplanned development.”

Without these farms, agricultural production for human and animal consumption is expected to continue to gradually decrease with the prices of crops and food expected to gradually increase.