One of the concerns mentioned in this article is the conversion of farmland to housing, but we should not forget that more than a thousand acres of farmland has been converted to wetland via dikes removal projects in the last couple of years, and that farmland, which often provided affordable land for new farmers and farming, is permanently gone.  I started my farm on drained river bed myself/ 
  Much of the wetland conversion is done in the name of salmon, but the dikes and so on were put in a long time before the dramatic decline of salmon; the dikes haven't changed in the last 50 years, and in many cases these wetland conversion projects appear to be giant jobs projects for grateful contractors.   We have spent over 500 million dollars on salmon recovery programs, which could also be termed farmland destruction projects, in the last 10 years.  half a billion dollars. And fewer salmon every year despite the spend.  I'm ok with spending.  I just want the results for the spend.