As a city dweller, I support limits on urban expansion. More compact cities fight climate change by reducing fossil fuel based transportation.

However, I question farm advocates’ use of the argument that we need to preserve farmland for our food supply. It’s just like when anti-tax developers hide behind little old widows to justify their objections to taxes.

Yes, food production is important, but how much farmland grows non-food products?Nearby Linn County touts itself as the “grass seed capital of the world.” How much of that grass is grown for golf courses? Urban and rural lawns? Nobody eats that grass, not even cows. As the new normal of drought takes over, and homeowners are converting their lawns to rock gardens, the demand for grass seed will fall, just like it fell during the recession when fewer homes were being built with their requisite lawns.

In Oregon, when field burning was restricted, hazelnut farms began taking over the grass seed fields. Hazelnut trees require lots of pesticides, harmful to food-pollinating bees.

If farmers want city allies, they must make the case that protected farmland will be used to grow (organic?) food, not such crops as non-edible grass seeds or bee-killing pesticide dependent crops.

Dave Stone

Springfield, Ore.