Republished with permission from The Midwesterner
Michigan farmland continues to lose ground due to renewable mandates and economic development programs imposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration.
Michigan lost roughly 100,000 acres of farmland and 200 family farms in 2024 alone, according to MLive. Citing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the news site reported that the state lost 670,000 acres of farmland between 2002 and 2022.
The state’s sharp one-year drop, reported in the USDA’s February 2025 Farms and Land in Farms summary, outpaces national averages, while contributing to a five-year trend in nationwide farm losses—averaged at about 63 family farms lost per day.
According to advocacy groups, these losses in lands and farms do not stem from market conditions alone, but from multiple policies at the federal and state level that have driven up land values as farm profitability has declined.
“Renters and beginning farmers remain especially exposed, facing high costs with limited equity,” Farm Bureau Economist Daniel Munch wrote in a Market Intel report about the 2025 USDA Land Values report.
“As USDA prepares to release updated income forecasts on Sept. 3, this data underscores a key tension: land values remain strong, but long-term farm profitability is increasingly reliant on policy, not price.”
Key policy changes in Michigan, such as PA 233, and Gov. Whitmer’s Priority Climate Action Plan – committing the state to a 50-52% reduction in Green House Gas emissions by prioritizing land use for renewable energy projects – have had significant impacts on land values. Additionally, PA 233, passed into law in 2023 by the Democratic legislative and executive trifecta between 2022 and 2024, allows developers to bypass local zoning for large-scale renewable projects.
Michigan saw the largest increase nationwide in farmland values. Rising by 7.8% in 2024, the price per acre has jumped up to $6,800, while cash rental rates have declined—encouraging retiring farmers to sell.
Renewable energy, particularly solar and wind power plants, have emerged as a growing factor in the loss of agricultural land, with state estimates indicating thousands of acres already purchased, leased or needed for projects to meet clean energy goals. Other conversions include data centers tied to AI expansion, though experts say their overall footprint remains small so far.
Yet, with the average farmer age around 58, and many lacking successors, developers have been quick to offer purchase agreements. As investors and developers pay top dollar for agricultural land, prices surge and create barriers for younger farmers that would typically take over.
However, Sarah Mills, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute’s Center for EmPowering Communities at the University of Michigan, offer another perspective that could be the key to unlocking the alarming rate of agricultural land conversions.
“One of the bigger shifts that’s happening across the U.S., not just in Michigan, is that farmland is an asset,” Mills said. “And so, a lot of investors are seeing farmland itself as a valuable investment.”
Beginning with federal policy initiatives like 30×30 and America The Beautiful – signed on Biden’s sixth day in office – nature itself became a financial asset under a $175 trillion monetary experiment called natural capital accounting. In addition to the accounting scheme, federal land use policies restricted agricultural production, reduced access to water and livestock grazing, while prioritizing carbon credits and so-called “green infrastructure.”
Groups like American Stewards of Liberty warn that these land use policies – still being pushed by states like Michigan – target the removal of another 400 million acres from agricultural use by the year 2030.
On the Lonesome Lands podcast, Margaret Byfield, Executive Director of ASL explains how these restrictive land use policies remove agricultural land from production, driving up input costs, while contributing to the loss of farm income.
According to USDA data, small farms have experienced year-over-year farm income losses for five consecutive years as bankruptcies have risen.
In Michigan, net farm income plummeted dramatically by 2023, marking the steepest decline in farm income since the dustbowl, according to research from the University of Michigan.
Land rich, cash poor, and dealing with restrictive land use policies, the issue comes into focus with a clearer understanding of how Michigan could lose 200 farms and 100,000 acres in one year.
While experts stress that the loss of prime farmland threatens rural communities and food production, on Feb. 11, 2026, the Trump administration announced an effort to fight back.
Characterizing former policies as the weaponization of government against those who feed Americans, Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins announced the multi-agency Farm and Ranch Freedom Framework as a means of fighting back.
“Together, we will ensure that no law, no regulation, and no agenda will ever stand in the way of America’s agricultural future,” Rollins said.
“The Department of the Interior is committed to cutting through red tape to restore stability to grazing permittees on BLM [Bureau of Land Management] lands, and reopening long-shuttered allotments to ensure America’s producers can thrive,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in the release.
“Under President Donald J. Trump, we are ending the weaponization of government against those who feed and clothe our families.”
The initiative builds upon $12 billion in emergency relief funds to farmers and ranchers nationwide. Yet, as rural Michigan communities fight to preserve their way of life, only time will tell if the new frameworks are able to help save the family farm.
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