Op-ed: There’s a Future for Farming in Chicago and Cities Beyond

Conservation efforts can help prevent the loss of land that is currently stymying small farming.
By Kelly Larsen
Civil Eats
October 13, 2026
Excerpt:
It’s no secret that local farming is in jeopardy. It’s estimated that our country loses 40 acres of farmland every hour, and the American Farm Bureau Federation recently found that over 140,000 farms were lost between 2017 and 2022. The acres used for farming in that time have declined by over 20 million, equivalent to the size of Maine.
For over a decade, most recently while leading The Conservation Fund’s Chicago Farms Fund program, I have been working with farms in and around Chicago, and I’ve seen with my own eyes the struggles farmers are facing that’ve led to these losses.
Older generations are aging out of the profession, while newer generations lack sustainable, long-term access to land protected from development. Many will start farming on a couple of acres, realize they need more land and resources to grow, then hit a wall because they can’t afford it. Many try to operate on a patchwork of temporarily leased land, where they can’t make long-term decisions about their business.
Read the complete article here.
Source: https://cityfarmer.info/op-ed-theres-a-future-for-farming-in-chicago-and-cities-beyond/
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