Keep urban sprawl away from farmland

I'm a seventh-grader and I'm worried about farmland security. Did you know that only 4 percent of the world is arable? Iowa contains 10 parent of the world's richest farmland and we are losing 26,000 acres of this each year. Shouldn't we be protecting it instead? Sadly, 88 percent of the growth in Iowa is happening outside of city limits and on farms.

The reason we are losing so many farms is because of urban sprawl. West Des Moines has the largest city growth with North Liberty close behind.

The best way to save more farmland is to stop urban sprawl. We can't stop the desert or the sea or anything else that limits our arable land, but we can stop the big building and malls on farmland. When we harvest shopping centers, we are destroying soil. It takes 500 years to replace one inch of soil.

I think we should work hard at saving those family farms and make sure there is no development on them. Develop our cities instead.

Liam Terry

Iowa City