This article from the November 14, 2011 printed Wall Street Journal was one that caught my eye. This article indicates that thousands of acres across the land are now being used again for agriculture. This article uses a different, and more modern approach to explain an increase in Demand for farmland. In class we looked at the topics of transportation and social savings. We saw that as transportation costs decreased a national market was created in which the price of goods varied little across cities. We discussed the social savings associated with the railroad and the radius of cultivation. This article uses an interesting new approach and looks at the value of US cropland. It is interesting to see how land values have changed nearly a century after the second industrial revolution. The article notes that land values have fallen do to the housing slump and that all crops are doing well. The article notes that with the already established infrastructure, markets, and transportation there are “rising prices for everything from corn to cotton” which increase the demand for farmland. Yet is does not go onto explain why prices are high for crops? I find it fun to run though different scenarios, all of which come back to the fact that gas prices are high and unemployment are low. I’ll let you formulate your own thoughts that will most likely differ from mine, but what we will all agree on is that man things have changed!
