When Becky and I moved from Southern California to North Carolina in 1998, we purchased a ranch near the Tar River and brought the horses and goats with us. It wasn't long before we felt that we had outgrown that property and began looking into buying a farm. That process was more difficult than we had anticipated. Very few intact farm properties were on the market. Generational farms were being turned into subdivisions and shopping malls. Many farmers had built an operation on land that was worth substantially more to a developer than it could ever generate from farming. In many instances, their children moved away or simply decided that they didn't want the financial uncertainties and physical demands of farming.
Let's a say a developer offered you several million dollars. Would you sell to another farmer for a fraction of its developmental value? A 130-acre piece of farmland that sells for, say, 1.5 million could easily create 100 potential building lots. The fact is, we live in a society where land is worth more when you stop farming than when you continue. Becky and I watched over and over again as another farm was bought only to be subdivided into housing tracts. One farm after the other. One field after the other.
I want to be clear that I'm not picking on farmers who did this. I understand that some families have to sell their farms to developers. In our case, we found a beautiful farm in Virginia near the Carolina border with an 1811 farm house that would be a perfect restoration project. None of the four children was in a position to take it over. The elderly owners, however, had decided to sell their farm intact to someone interested in agriculture.
We bought that farm with the goal of perpetuating the legacy they had built through generations. For two and a half decades we've worked the land. We've toiled through good seasons and bad, relying on the Lord to meet the needs of our family. That utter dependence on God is one of the reasons I love farming so much. Farming is not an easy life. It tests you in every possible way. But it's a life that farmers cherish.
They're not making farmland anymore. Land once developed is lost forever. Yes, I understand that people need to live in homes with limited acreage. But not everything needs to be developed just because it can be. Once it's gone, it's gone.
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