Business
Florida Cropland Increases Value Amid Global Food Lows
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A Florida farm field | Credit: Shutterstock - alexandernAmid rising food prices, and growing shortages of world food stocks, Florida's productive farmland is increasingly valuable to the country.
"Florida remains a consistent safe bet as a primary supplier of a variety of agricultural products," said Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
"Though the predominance of production occurs between October and May, there is rarely a time when some commodity isn't being produced. In 2010, our vegetable production alone was valued at $2.1 billion, up from $1.9 billion from the previous year."
According to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates, America's reserves of corn and soybeans are at historic lows, less than 5 percent of projected demand for the coming year. The Washington Post reports that typical reserves have been three or more times that amount.
As a result, the market price for corn to be delivered in May nearly doubled from $3.67 to $7.23 as of late last month, the Post reported.
Contributing to the rise is an increase in the world's demand as well as the ethanol industry converting food stocks to fuel. A more subtle, but long-term, factor is America's diminishing farm acreage.
For decades, U.S. cropland has steadily eroded in an onslaught of exurban and suburban development. The continued loss of family farms has accelerated that decline.
Meantime, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization projects that global food production will have to increase by 70 percent over the next four decades to meet ever-rising demand.
It is “an untenable situation that we don’t have an answer for,” Scott Shellady, a trader with XFA Futures in Chicago, told the Post. “The long term is shaping up to be demand we have a hard time filling.”
While U.S. cropland decreased 5 percent from 2007 to 2009, Florida's decline in that period wasn't quite so marked.
"Florida fared a bit better, with 1,053,000 acres in 2007 and 1,017,000 acres in 2009, a 3.4 percent decline," Ivey said.
Part of that drop can be attributed to the blight-battered citrus industry.
The state typically plants 230,000 to 240,000 acres of non-citrus fresh fruits and vegetables annually. A rich assortment of field crops, including sugar cane, rounds out the total.
As food prices continue to soar, the question remains if Florida's cropland will stay on the decline. Industry trade groups in DC have argued that keeping America's land, and the food it provides, in production during a time of historic lows could become a matter of national security.
Indeed, Florida is sharply expanding its berry production and yielding bigger cash returns.
Harvested acres for strawberries increased during the last 10 years from 6,300 acres to 8,800, with a corresponding expansion in value from $167 million in 2000 to $367 million in 2010.
Blueberries are up even more. Acreage more than doubled from 1,500 acres to 3,500 acres in the past decade, with cash receipt soaring from $11.9 million to $48 million.
But there have been declines, too.
Notably, harvested acreage for tomatoes has fallen from 38,000 to 29,000 in the past five years. But Ivey said crop revenues have remained strong -- between $600 million and $800 million -- because of shortages and higher prices.
Comments (4)
Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute put the rising demand in perspective when he stated that tonight they'll be 219,000 more people at the dinner table than there was the night before. In about 30 years, that will add up to another 2 billion mouths to feed.
The green revolution pretty much saved us the last time and some seem to think biotechnology will save us this time. But I don't see it. All that's proved so far is how far some corporations will go to control the food market. GMO's have also fallen short of their promises- and the safety to us, and that includes the environment is questionable.
Besides, there's a perfect storm of other factors brewing too. Water, water, water, fertilizer, advancing deserts/loss of topsoil, climate change, geopolitics, and as was already pointed out, development- among others.
When we see China, Saudi Arabia, and several other countries buying up farmland in other parts of the world to secure food for their populations, you have to know for sure the ability to grow our own food is a more a matter of national security than its ever been. After all, we've gone to war for a lot less important things.
Besides that, agriculuture is the backbone of our economy. (Though it is being destroyed by corporations by them being near monopsonies as well as it becoming more and more industrialized. As well as some parts of the west now find it more profitable to sell their water to the oil and gas industry, or to municipalities to meet their growing population.)
I could go on and on but will end with this. IMO, we should not allow our agricultural lands to be turned into housing developments- especially here in Florida. And we should fight the corporate takeover of our farms. It's as important for our farms to be diversified as it is our investments. Better for us as consumers too...
An article that gives a brief overview of how corporations are hurting farmers.
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-15-poultry-industry-smothers-immigr...
That should read, some "farmers" of the west now find it more profitable....