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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah residents are willing to water their lawns less and pay more for nonfarm water if it means prime agricultural land continues to grow crops, not new homes or businesses.
New poll results released from Envision Utah demonstrate the keen and burgeoning love affair respondents have with Utah-produced food and its indelible link to self-sufficiency.
The agricultural survey, part of the Your Utah Your Future outreach that tapped more than 52,000 Utah residents, shows that 87 percent of people are willing to use less water on their lawns and 82 percent are willing to restrain businesses and homes from taking root on existing high-quality agricultural lands.
Those numbers are in sharp contrast to those who are not willing to use less water, 13 percent, or disapprove of development restrictions on farmland, 17 percent.
Envision Utah officials say the results are reflective of an increasing sense of importance Utah residents are placing on agriculture, with 74 percent who say farming and ranching are critical to the state's future, compared with less than a third who felt that way seven years ago.
"This reflects two generations coming together," said Robert Grow, president and chief executive officer of Envision Utah, which probed residents' top concerns in a dozen key areas such as economy, education, water and transportation.
"You have the self-sufficiency of the baby boomers combined with the local food movement of the millennials. You have this multigenerational base of support of agriculture that you probably didn't have 10 years ago," Grow added.
In the survey, agriculture and food supply are mapped out under four scenarios under a near doubling of population in the state by 2050, scenarios that chart outcomes based on a "business as usual" approach or significant changes to urban development policies designed to protect farmland.
As an example, the survey done by the nonprofit organization predicts per-person agricultural production in Utah will drop by half by population growth alone, and fruit and vegetable production will drop to practically zero.
Grow noted that it is signficant when people are indicating they would rather have water come off their own lawns than from a farm to support population growth.
"We are willing to develop new (water) projects before we take it from the farm," he said. "This is sort of an amazing resurgence of interest and support for agriculture in Utah."
The survey notes that Utah's agricultural production already is facing challenges, with just 2 percent of the vegetables consumed in-state that are produced here, and 3 percent of fruits that are consumed here grown in Utah soil.
Grow said he believes those low numbers startled residents, stoking concerns that have already come to the fore given the historic drought that has stifled the California produce market.
Here in Utah, nearly a quarter of the residents who took the survey said agricultural improvements need to take place to boost the state's food self-sufficiency, followed by 20 percent who said agriculture is important because of the value they place on locally produced food.
This is sort of an amazing resurgence of interest and support for agriculture in Utah.
–Robert Grow, Envision Utah
"It is just exciting to think that this many people in Utah feel that strongly about agriculture," said Utah Agriculture Commissioner LuAnn Adams. "It confirms what we have been hearing from time to time, that people want to be connected with their local farmers and ranchers, and they want access to an abundance of local, safe food."
Numbers from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food underscore the increasing desirability of food grown or harvested in-state.
Farmers markets numbered just seven in 2001, compared with 45 farmers markets or community supported agricultural associations today.
About 10 percent of Utah's 18,000 farms sell direct to consumers, eclipsing the national average of 7 percent, according to the agency.
Grow said the numbers demonstrate that people are significantly uncomfortable with the conversion of agricultural water supplies to "grow" homes and new businesses and want to see policymakers take an approach that saves ranches and farms.
"This requires a deep, hard look and a lot of research on what is possible," he said.
Sterling Brown, vice president of public policy for the Utah Farm Bureau, said the increasing urbanization in Utah County, for example, is wiping out fruit orchards in a prime "microclimate" that at one point had Utah ranked No. 1 in the country for cherry production.
"It's no secret those areas are being paved over with blacktop, asphalt and rooftops," Brown said.
There is some good news, however.
Grow said market conditions are driving up housing densities, and in essence 200 square miles of farmland have been saved because people are willing to live on smaller lots in more compact settings.
Adams, too, said the agency has been working in particular with Utah County officials and city leaders to come up with innovative ways to save the farms and orchards that remain.
"It is not an easy answer," she said. "We are working with farmers, ranchers and county commissioners to come up with a tool box of ideas. Everyone thinks of conservation easements, but there has to be more alternatives."
