By Ray Massey
Missouri has 44 million acres of land, 64 percent of which is listed as agricultural land. Taking the long view of land use clarifies the impact of agriculture on the environment. The USDA Census of Agriculture has published the number of acres in major land use categories since 1945. Exhibit 2.1 shows that the number of acres in cropland reached a maximum of 21.5 million acres in 1969. Since then, land dedicated to crop production decreased to 15.6 million acres in 2012. The black line in Exhibit 2.1 shows that the amount of land used for crop and livestock production decreased from 36.2 million acres in 1945 to 28.8 million acres in 2012.
Using less land for crop and livestock production has resulted in an additional 6.2 million acres of forestland not grazed and an additional 700,000 acres of parks and wildlife areas.
Exhibit 2.1 — Missouri land uses, 1945–2012
Source: missouri.edu