"Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country."                         

—William Jennings Bryan

Only a tiny amount of the dry land on earth can produce the food that feeds the people of the world. The very best of that farmland is in northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana. It is a treasure that has been entrusted to those of us fortunate enough to call this region our home. It is our responsibility to make sure that this treasure—the farmland of Illinois with its deep, black, rich soil, remains here in abundance for future generations.

In many ways the importance of farmland preservation seems obvious. Well-managed farms:

• Provide healthy, locally grown food;
• Supply habitat for wildlife and scenic rural vistas;
• Protect our drinking water;
• Save woods, wetlands, and watersheds;
• Create recreational opportunities and toursim; and
• Strengthen our vital agricultural economy.

For these reasons alone it is important for Illinois and Indiana to have in place the public and private policies needed to ensure preservation of their irreplaceable asset—farmland. But the importance of farmland protection goes well beyond the important matters of nutrition, the economy, and the environment.

There are only a few places on earth with farmland that can match what is found here. There is some in Argentina, some in the Ukraine, and some along the Yellow River in China. Ours is farmland so rich that early settlers of the region found they could not grow wheat—it grew so rapidly that it fell over under its own weight. Other states have been similarly blessed with irreplaceable natural treasures: New England has its majestic coast line, Arizona its Grand Canyon, California its groves of Redwoods. In Illinois and Indiana we have been entrusted with the land.

That's not just dirt down there. The last ice age covered much of Illinois and Indiana with a sheet of ice that protected the ground form erosion for almost 15,000 years. As the ice retreated, dust storms spread another layer of soil on the rolling, unforested plains. Prairie grasses grew and burned, leaving charcoal that gave the soil its rich black color.

It is hard to imagine the New England coast being paved over at the rate of almost 80,000 acres per year. Yet farmland in our region, perhaps because of the way that land is seen in terms of how it can be easily converted to other uses, doesn’t (yet) inspire the same protections enjoyed by other natural treasures.

Perhaps part of the reason is that there seems to be so much of it. A drive from the southern tip of Illinois to the Wisconsin border can give the impression that this is home to the proverbial "waves of grain."  But the truth is much closer to what Bryan suggested in his iconic comment about farms. Their destruction has been coming about at an alarming rate. Maps of urban growth reveal how much farmland has given way to development. Each time a decision is made to change the way Illinois land is used must be a moment for careful thought, with action guided by options that will preserve the interests of everyone involved.