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Applied and Extension

A Farmland Impact Index (FII) as a Tool for Spatial Justice Hannah Dankbar*, Hannah Dankbar,

The conversion of American farmland is driven by two powerful structural forces: low-density residential expansion and the escalating impacts of climate change. While communities have the power to slow these forces through strategic land use planning, the field of community planning often treats rural land as a commodity or a “blank slate” rather than a complex social, economic, and environmental system, which undermines local food and agriculture systems rather than viewing them as essential community systems. This paper introduces the Farmland Impact Index (FII), a methodological framework designed to provide local government planners with the tools needed to integrate agriculture meaningfully into community planning. By aligning agriculture with a green infrastructure framework, the FII shifts the perception of farmland from “vacant land” to an essential element for community health. The FII is composed of three composite indicators, social, economic, and environmental, aggregated to capture the holistic value of agriculture. Using publicly available secondary national data, the index offers a replicable instrument for long-range planning and land-use evaluation. The FII is applied through a spatial analysis of the Southeastern United States, a region characterized by significant population growth and deep-rooted agricultural ties. The study explores the index’s performance across various urban typologies, illustrating how rural-urban interfaces experience the multi-dimensional value of agriculture differently. Ultimately, this research provides a pathway for procedural justice in community planning. By providing practitioners with metrics that reflect the true social and ecological contributions of farmland, the FII empowers rural communities to resist unmitigated conversion and advocate for development that recognizes and protects their essential agricultural assets.