Idaho Continues To Produce A Lot Of Food

In December, American Farmland Trust co-hosted the Governor’s Summit on Agricultural Viability in Boise.  The goal of the Summit was to discuss ways to promote farming in states like Idaho and many others that loosing farmland to urban and suburban sprawl, primarily housing developments.

According to the most recent Census of Agriculture, between 2017-2022, over 144,000 acres of farmland were lost in Idaho.  While that is a significant loss, Sean Ellis with the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation said the amount of food produced hasn’t decreased.

Technology Is A Big Help To Modern Agriculture

“It’s technology that allows us to grow more food on less land," Ellis said.  "So, Idaho still produces every year, that I've been covering agriculture, maybe even more now, we still produce about the same amount of barley, about the same amount of potatoes, same amount of sugarbeets, the same amount of wheat, the same amount of hay, the same amount of all these other crops that we're famous for in Idaho.”

How long can that trend continue?

Ellis says he’s not sure.

Agriculture's Impact On Local Economies In Rural Idaho

He added as Idaho’s population grows and changes, its important that everyone understands how important farming is to the state’s economy, especially in rural corners of the state.

"Agriculture underpins the economy in these rural areas. And there was a couple of people talking about studies that BYU, Idaho and University of Idaho have done that show that as far as tax dollars go at the county level, the tax dollars that are taken from agriculture, there's a net profit, a net benefit to the county," Ellis said.  "When you take the tax dollars, they're taken from residential, you got a net loss. So basically agriculture and commercial, et cetera, is subsidized in residential. But that's not something to sneeze at. So the more you lose this agriculture, the more you lose a lot of your valuable tax base.”

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