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Threatened Farmland: Settlement and Susceptibility

Retrospecta 45

Eleven million acres of agricultural land in the United States have been fragmented or converted to high-density or low-density land use between 2001 and 2016. The conversion of high quality agricultural land to development prevents the possibility for a local and regional food system, limits local economic opportunities, jeopardizes food security, climate resilience and community fabric.



During a time in which a recent pandemic has revealed both the shortcomings of and our vulnerability to a globalized food supply-chain, protecting land with soils best suited for agricultural production is pertinent. The degree to which farmland in the United States is threatened by development depends on a series of variables such as: distance from a metropolitan center, state and local policy, market volatility, scale of farming operation, diversity of operation, local transportation infrastructure, and patterns of settlement.


This visual essay will focus on the relationship between existing settlement patterns and development of farmland. Settlement patterns act as a physical manifestation and reinforcement of past and contemporary economic systems, cultural ideals, and policy implemented upon a particular ecological context. This paper provides an analysis of six different mosaics of agricultural land threatened by development across varying cultural regions with different patterns of settlement. Each mosaic is sampled at 2 miles by 2 miles. What are the indigenous, colonial and contemporary patterns of settlement in each region? Are regions characterized by a particular settlement pattern(s) more susceptible to a certain degree, scale or type of farmland development?


Architecture and Design

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