In the report, a variety of factors that influence the conversion, or preservation, of farmland in OECD countries is considered. The stock of farmland shows slow declines in all countries, but this decline is considerably slower than might be expected given pressures for conversion of farmland to urban uses near cities, and persistent low levels of return available to farmers operating in more remote areas that are less favorable for agriculture. This suggests that while market forces are important in defining land use, there are other forces at work as well. Notably, these are: agricultural policy that alters the returns from agricultural activity, environmental policy that imposes restrictions on the way farmland is used to ensure that the natural environment is protected, and land use policy that determines which types of land use will be allowed by society on specific parcels.