The Slow Death of Family Farms

This story really hits home, and hurts at the same time. Myself being in agriculture I can understand this.

The last known working farm inside the Capital Beltway has been sold to a North Carolina developer planning to build a strip mall.

The 35-acre Prince George's farm has been in Duane Dickerson's family since the 1880s. But the 62-year-old said he is leaving because of a lack of profitability, along with increased population and increased crime inside the Beltway.

"This used to be the country and years ago even the family name was on the old road maps, the area was so sparse," Dickerson told The Washington Post. "This was all farms — close to D.C., but it was all farms."

Crime sucks

Dickerson said he's found stolen cars torched and abandoned on his property. One of his llamas was shot and killed, and one of his horses was left with a 9-inch cut across its neck, he said. Last month the barn his father built in 1939 was burned down.

news.yahoo.com...


Where I live, theres basically nothing. My nearest neighbour is miles away. We own nearly 1000 acres, I cant imagine development taking over.

Theres times when farming is bad, and good, but to see something generations old be plowed over with junk really really hurts.


There will come a time when people come to realise that their urban expansion was too much.