YOUR TEXAS AGRICULTURE MINUTE

Move over cattle, that land is needed for houses

By Gary Joiner
Publisher

The costs of a growing state like Texas can be sobering.

The price paid is often the development of working farm and ranch land.

It’s been happening for a while in our state. From 2010 to 2020, Texas added 4 million people. Housing units were up over 16% in that same time.

More folks are coming, too. An historic 3,800-acre ranch about 11 miles from downtown Fort Worth is the latest property to fall. Cattle had called the ranch owned by the same family home since 1935.

Not anymore. The Veale Ranch sold recently to make room for homes and another 30,000 people.

Reports indicate housing starts in North Texas are up more than 40% this year. Builders are scrambling to find sites for future home communities.

That puts farms and ranches and their acres in high demand. Once farm and ranch land is developed, it leaves production agriculture forever.

It’s a cruel irony that a burgeoning state and nation that needs more food to feed a growing population is actually gobbling-up the acres it needs to grow that food.

We need to keep private property in agriculture. We need to keep farmers and ranchers on the land, because it’s good for the land, and it’s good for you, me and Texas.

The preceding commentary is brought to you by Texas Farm Bureau, the “Voice of Texas Agriculture.” Called “Your Texas Agriculture Minute,” TFB will issue thought-provoking editorials each week—via print and audio—to spark understanding of agriculture in the Lone Star State and its impact on each and every Texan.

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