
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 15, 1993                   TAG: 9307150222
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

FARMLAND THREATENED BY DEVELOPMENT

Highly productive farmland lies in the path of 12 sprawling urban areas, a preservation group said Wednesday.

And without government action on all levels, those lands could disappear, the American Farmland Trust said in a report.

The group said the greatest threats from rapid population growth and development are in California's Central Valley, south Florida, California's coastal region and the Mid-Atlantic coast, including the Chesapeake Bay region. According to Census data, those regions and the eight others account for some of the nation's highest agricultural sales and also its highest growth rates in population.

The other regions include the Shenandoah and Cumberland valleys in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and North Carolina's Piedmont.

- Associated Press

by CNB