Farmer's Response to Urbanization: A Study of the Middle Atlantic States

摘要

Using interview and county and township level data it was found that urbanization influences dairying more than any other type of agriculture. The long time needed for investment in dairying is subjected to uncertainties created by urbanization; consequently, dairy farming is declining in metropolitan and rapidly growing non-metropolitan counties. Other types of farming requiring shorter term investments seem less influenced by urbanization effects, although farmers are nonetheless inconvenienced by these effects. In response, some farmers have worked harder at community relations, accommodated their operations to urban nuisances, and acted collectively to enact legislation on differential assessment of farmland and, in New York, to participate in the agricultural districting program.