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Abstract
Most U.S. farmland is in no danger of being overrun by urban sprawl. Less than 20 percent of U.S. cropland is in metropolitan counties. Cropland in the Northeast is under more urban pressure than elsewhere because more than three-fourths of it is within or adjacent to urban counties. Ownership patterns of cropland are also different in metropolitan counties, with a higher proportion held in small parcels, by nonfarmers, and by nonfamily corporations than in rural areas. Such differences in ownership patterns may presage conversion of cropland to other uses.