Faculty Research and Creative Activity
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
January 2015
Abstract
Urbanization has been directly linked to decreases in area of agricultural lands and, as such, has been considered a threat to food security. Although the area of land used to produce food has diminished, often overlooked have been changes in agricultural output. The Eastern Corn Belt Plains (ECBP) is an important agricultural region in the U.S. Midwest. It has both gained a significant amount of urban land, primarily from the conversion of agricultural land between 1973 and 2000, and at the same time continued to produce ever-increasing quantities of agricultural products. By 2002, more corn, soybeans, and hogs were produced on a smaller agricultural land base than in 1974. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, ECBP ecoregion society appeared to have “had it both ways”: more urbanization along with increased agricultural output.
Recommended Citation
Auch, Roger and Laingen, Chris, "Having it Both Ways?: Land Use Change in a U.S. Midwestern Agricultural Ecoregion" (2015). Faculty Research and Creative Activity. 14.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/geoscience_fac/14
https://works.bepress.com/chris_laingen/8/
Included in
Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, Human Geography Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Remote Sensing Commons
