Environment: Saving the Farms

Every year about 350,000 acres of farm land on the fringes of America's suburbs—an area roughly half the size of Rhode Island—are taken out of crops and put into buildings. Though the loss may seem insignificant in a nation with 470 million acres of cropland, there is a hitch. Much of the lost acreage is top-quality farm land, rich soil that the U.S. should keep as a major resource. But to save such land for farming has been almost impossible. Buying it outright is too expensive. Zoning it for agricultural use only can often be illegal. The U.S. Constitution forbids any...