Since 1970, the Buffalo Niagara region has lost over 1,250 working farms, and nearly 160 square miles of farmland – an area four times the size of the City of Buffalo and down by roughly a third from what the region had 40 years ago.

What the data says

Nearly 30 percent of Buffalo Niagara (that’s 456 square miles) is devoted to agriculture. If that seems like a lot, imagine forty years ago when 40 percent of land within our two counties (that’s 616 square miles) was used for farming.

The region has lost 1,254 operating farms since 1969, 789 in Niagara County alone. This decline reveals the precarious position of agriculture in Buffalo-Niagara; since 1969, every year sees over 4 square miles of agricultural land converted to other uses. That’s more land we lose for the production of our region’s staple products such as apples, wine, dairy and vegetables.

This lengthens the distance between farm and dinner table, increases energy inputs into the agricultural process, and increases our dependence on distant food sources. It also hinders creation of a more robust local economy and sustainable food culture.

Where are we losing our agricultural land?

Why this is important to moving one region forward

Many of us take access to food for granted. We go to the supermarket and buy what we want. We don’t necessarily think about where it comes from, how it gets here, or what might happen to disrupt the supply.

If we continue to lose our farms and farmlands our ability to supply any significant proportion of our food needs locally will be greatly diminished. Food shipped from long distances – California, Florida, South and Central America – involves greater consumption of fossil fuels and production of greenhouse gases. And food produced far away is inherently less reliable than food grown closer to home. This is especially so given that we don’t know what impact climate change will have on the growing regions from which we get much of our food now.

As farmland goes fallow or is consumed by sprawling residential development, our agricultural economy shrinks further. The number of jobs, not just on farms, but in transporting, processing, and marketing food, continues to decline. When we “grow” homes where fruits and vegetables used to grow, we also trade land that produces value with land that consumes costly public services.

What strategies can we adopt to decrease agricultural land loss in our region?

One of the most important ways to protect agricultural land from conversion to development is to support the economic viability of the farms we already have. Some farms are building connections to local restaurants that feature local products. Others have established Community Supported Agriculture programs through which consumer purchase produce directly from the farmer. Improving marketing and distribution can help farms reach markets and raise sales.

But we can also protect farmland more directly. Conservation easements can be applied to farms, where farmers get paid to preserve their land in agriculture. Localities could create “transfer of development rights” where developers get density bonuses in developed areas for protecting farmland elsewhere. Zoning and property tax policy can also protect farmers from paying taxes on what their land would be worth if it were converted to single family housing.

Data Notes

The Agricultural Census is a statistical survey conducted by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistical Survey (NASS) every five years. Summary reports were used to obtain the number of farms and land area in farms for Erie and Niagara Counties for the following years: 1969, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007. The average rate of annual agricultural land loss was calculated as the average of the mean yearly agricultural land loss as calculated for each census period. An important note, starting with the 1997 Agricultural Census, NASS made imputations to account for non-reporting farms. This discrepancy may have caused an underestimation of the farmland area for the years prior to 1997 while comparatively overestimating the agricultural land area for the last three census years.

Data Sources:

Census of Agriculture, USDA-National Agricultural Statistical Service. (2009, 1999, 1989, 1980, 1976).



U.S. Geological Survey. (1997). 1992 New York Land Cover Dataset.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistical Survey, Research and

Development Division, Geospatial Information Branch, Spatial Analysis Research Section. (2011). New York Cropland Data Layer.