Urban sprawl appears to be responsible for losing almost 31 million acres of farmland over a 20-year period that ended in 2012, mostly because of expanding urban areas. That’s equal to all the farmland in Iowa, according to a from the American Farmland Trust that you can read here. The report calls on Congress to take several steps, such as doubling funding for the federal Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, in the 2018 farm bill.