Land use laws and other tools come into play as the state’s population hits a milestone. Oregon’s population now tops 4 million people. Whether the continued population increase negatively impacts agriculture remains to be seen, but the state’s land use protections are more important than ever, according to officials with the Oregon Department of Agriculture. “Two must-haves for Oregon agriculture are land and water,” says ODA Director Katy Coba. “As more people come to live in Oregon, there is likely to be more competition for those natural resources. We simply need to continue protecting our agricultural production base to keep farming viable.” Portland State University’s Population Research Center estimates Oregon’s population at 4,013,846 people with about 80 percent of the growth coming from net migration. Of the top six fastest growing counties, five are in the Willamette Valley, which is where up to 80 percent of the state’s value of agriculture is generated. The greater Bend area of Central Oregon is another hot spot of population growth in which agricultural production is vulnerable.
