According to the American Farmland Trust, America loses two acres of farmland to development every minute. From 1992 to 1997, over six million acres of farmland were developed, an area equivalent to the entire state of Maryland. Much of that development takes place in the form of suburban sprawl. Over the past twenty years, the acreage per person for new housing has almost doubled; during the period from 1982 to 1987 the US population grew by 17%, and the amount of urbanized land grew by 47%. Often the greatest threat to farmland comes from people who want to live surrounded by it..