May 19, 2013
If you drive the interstates of Wisconsin this summer, you may see a few changes. Some rolling meadows just outside metro areas are quickly turning into commercial outlets or new subdivisions.
In fact according to the state agriculture department Wisconsin is losing farmland to development at the third fastest rate in the nation, mostly because of the price farmland land is getting right now.
"People are willing to pay 66% more for land that's being taken out of farming and put in some other use rather than land being sold as farm land," says the Eau Claire County director of planning and development.
The rapid development has prompted the state to study ways to preserve Wisconsin's farmland and the fifty billion dollars a year it generates.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the state has lost more than ten million acres of farmland since 1950.
