re: Depressing Small Southern Cities

quote:

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The value of farmland has skyrocketed in the last 15 years

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Open up Realtor.com and look at what was once very valuable farmland around Lumberton, NC or any of the other *remote and newly insignificant* parts of the country. Here are a few examples:

70 acres for $140k

123 acres for$225k

298 acres for $349k

It's a pretty area with good farmland but it is no longer important because it is not on an interstate and the economics of farming have changed so radically that the opportunity to make a living is unappealing.

The flip side of that argument: Imagine if every acre of farmland actually produced food. Corn would be a dollar a bushel so obviously what is happening is organic: Some farms cannot compete so they just go to seed and then get sold as a hunting property since no one in their right mind is going to plant ONLY 20 acres in soybeans because it is very hard to make a living.

How many acres of good farmland are currently growing hay if for no other reason than to get agricultural tax credits? And decent farmland in areas convenient to larger cities is being bought by people with $ as a weekend farm / gentleman's farm. I live just outside of Asheville and Mills River (a small farming community) is gradually being devoured by both big ag companies and people escaping the city to live in the country. God help us when California slides off into the pacific lol.