Excerpts from the report Introduction: Despite claims to the contrary, the amount of U.S. rural land--and level of agricultural production--is not threatened by the present rate of urbanization. This report, based on an indepth analysis, shows that urbanization is not paving over the Nation's rural areas any more than in the past. Urbanization is not consuming all of our farmland nor is it taking all the best land out of production. If present rates of population growth and land conversion continue, cropland area actually would be larger in the year 2000 than in 1980 because of new land brought into production.