Cotton to Cul-de-sac's

Growing up in the agriculture industry, I have heard the phrase "There will be 9 billion people by 2050" 9 billion times. The term is framed to ask how we will feed the population. The question that I am concerned about is where we will store them. Overpopulation is already a problem in most major cities, and cities worldwide are expanding daily. Housing developments are spreading like wildfire, constantly eating our farmland. The term we use to describe this act is Urban Encroachment (Cities growing and farms shrinking.) We desperately need a new housing system because we only have a finite amount of farmland and every house built on it is fewer crops for U.S. consumers. Scarcity drives U.S. Agriculturalists to innovate new technologies to their advantage; however, the rate of new technologies cannot keep pace with the amount of farmland being absorbed.

According to the USDA, we (The United States) lost 1.3 million acres in 2021. It takes around one acre of land to feed a family of four for an entire year. This statistic means in 2021 alone; we lost ground that could have supplied food for 5.2 million people (about half the population of Georgia.) Urban Blockers and Right to Farm bills have been set in place but are insufficient. The United States needs to fulfill new legislation that requires a certain percentage of farmland to be considered federally protected to ensure food on our rising population's plate.

This issue is affecting Rural Georgians as well. I come from Long County, Georgia, which is best described as a red light surrounded by pine trees, at least it used to be. Long County has had the highest growth rate in Georgia since the last census, with an impressive increase of 29.58%. We have had a 43% Growth rate since 2010. The first step to adjusting to the population growth was our school system. The High School, Middle School, and Elementary School were all rebuilt within the last ten years. Within the previous five years, Subdivisions started to infest the town, and every time I drive around, a new neighborhood is being built. The Local government is quoted as saying, "The number of people will bring in more business." The only problem is the people have nowhere to spend their money in the county. We have five restaurants (One being a gas station) and one IGA. We used to have farmers' markets and substantial farming; now, we have potholes and increased property taxes.

The same cotton fields used to make Support Georgia Agriculture's fantastic line of Magnolia Loom T-Shirts (use coupon code COLTON at check out) can someday be a parking lot. We must do our part to stop the Cotton Fields to turn in to Cul-de-sacs. The land is the second most valuable aspect of Georgia Agriculture; the first is You. Please talk to your local elected officials about Urban Encroachment and try to come up with new ways to fight it. This act will help to ensure that when 2050 arrives, we have enough land to feed ourselves.

Colton Peacock

Long County, Georgia