Tractors Versus Bulldozers: Integrating Growth Management and Ecosystem Services to Conserve Agriculture

• Date: 01 June 2009

5-2009 NEWS & ANALYSIS 39 ELR 10541

Tractors Versus

Bulldozers:

Integrating Growth

Management and

Ecosystem

Services to

Conserve

Agriculture

by Jacob T. Cremer

Jacob T. Cremer is a student at the Florida State University,

College of Law, and the Florida State University,

Department of Urban and Regional Planning.



Many policies aimed at conserving agriculture have

failed because they are not comprehensive enough. A

successful program should seek to maintain agricul-

tural viability, preserve ecosystem services, and manage

development into desired areas. Growth management,

the interdisciplinary expansion of land use planning,

provides an institutional structure for this comprehen-

sive solution. With its unparalleled natural resources, a

strong agricultural industry, and one of the strongest

growth management systems in the nation, Florida

provides a perfect laboratory for integrating these con-

cepts. e Rural Lands Stewardship Act and the Florida

Ranchlands Environmental Services Project, used as

case studies, show how progress is being made to inte-

grate growth management and ecosystem services to

conserve agriculture.

“With the possible exception of Alaska, no state’s

economic sustainability is more closely linked

to environmental susta inability than Flor-

ida. A hea lthy environment directly generates income . ..

through the tourism industry, including boating, hunting,

shing, bird-watching, hiking, kayaking, ecotourism, a nd

our beaches.”1 But this burgeoning list neglects an important

piece of the economic puzzle: agriculture.2 Agriculture has an

estimated $100 billion economic impact on the state3—an

amount equal to 14% of the state’s gross domestic product.4

Florida produces more oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, a nd

sugarcane than any other state; ranks second in all green-

house and nurser y products, sweet corn, and strawberries;

and contributes a large proportion of the nation’s fresh mar-

ket tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, and watermelons.5

Economics is just one reason among many why commu-

nities, in Florida or elsewhere, may want to conserve agri-

culture. Ot her reasons include job retention, food security,

healthy land development patterns, and rural and environ-

mental amenities such a s cultural maintenance, open space

retention, and natural land buering between competing

land uses.6 is Ar ticle does not argue whether a commu-

nity should protect agriculture; while there is a rich literature

on benets communities derive from agriculture,7 t here are

also ineciencies and environmental costs associated with

the decision to support or conserve agriculture.8 However,

because there is widespread public belief that conserving

1. , F T, Oct. 1, 2007.

2. e author uses the term “agriculture” in this Article in the broadest sense,

encompassing silviculture and aquaculture, for the sake of simplicity. Note,

though, that many studies addressed here do not explain whether they include

these activities as a subset of agriculture or not. Whenever possible, this has

been noted. is is unfortunate, since silviculture is the second largest agricul-

tural industry group in the state, by economic impact. See A W. H

 ., E C  F A, N

R, F  K P M  D-

,  S I  , at 9 tbl.1 (2008), available at http://

edis.ifas.u.edu/pdles/FE/FE70200.pdf.

3. Id. at 21 tbl.4.

4. See Bureau of Economic Analysis, Gross Domestic Product by State, http://

www.bea.gov/regional/gsp/ (last visited June 5, 2008) (reporting a 2006 Flor-

ida gross domestic product (GDP) of $716,505,000).

5. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida-Agricul-

ture.com, Overview of Florida Agriculture, http://www.orida-agriculture.

com/agfacts.htm (last visited May 6, 2009).

6. See Lori Lynch, Protecting Farmland, in L U P  C

,  (Stephan J. Goetz et al. eds., 2005); Jeanne S. White,  -

shares Into Townhomes: e Loss of Farmland and Strategies for Slowing Its Con-

, 28 E. L. 113, 113 (1998).

7. See Lynch, supra note 6.

8. See David Abler,, in L

U P  C  (Stephan J. Goetz et al. eds., 2005); J.B.

Ruhl, Farms, eir Environmental Harms, and Environmental Law, 27 E-

 L.Q. 263 (2000).

       

    



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