Kansas and Iowa, rich in wind resources, can provide more electricity than other

If that sounds ambitious, consider that the country has installed some 50, 000 wind turbines on land over the past two decades. They now supply roughly 5 percent of the nation’s electric power, a figure that reaches double digits in particularly windy states like Kansas and Iowa.

The number of farms in New York State has been declining steadily, to 35, 537 in 2012 from 38, 264 in 1997, according to the most recent five-year census conducted by the Department of Agriculture. And since 1982, real estate development has swallowed more than 471,000 acres of the state’s farmland, according to data compiled by the American Farmland Trust, a preservation group.