AgWired

Ag Commissioners Urge Protection of Farmland

Most of the country’s original colonies are urging the federal government to preserve and protect our nation’s farmland.

“Protecting farmland for future agricultural use is of utmost importance to every citizen of the United States… so critical to maintaining the future viability of our agricultural sectors and rural communities,” said agriculture commissioners and officials from
13 states in a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Of those 13 states, 11 were among the original colonies, which actually became 18 of our present day states. They include Connecticut, Deleware, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. The others that signed the letter are Ohio and Michigan.

American Farmland Trust (AFT) coordinated the letter commenting on the federal Interim Final Rule regarding the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP), and AFT Senior Director of Farmland Protection Programs Bob Wagner says the states signing the letter represent over 70 percent of all the acreage protected under state farmland protection programs. “These states recognize that the federal government has been a key partner in helping protect farmland since 1995, and they are offering improvements to the FRPP program so that it can be most effective and efficient,” said Wagner.

While there are differences in agricultural practices by the states in the region, the letter identified common issues of concern, and asked that the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) allow the states maximum discretion to implement FRPP as Congress directed in the 2008 Farm Bill.

U.S. Farmland Being Lost at Alarming Rate

America is losing rural farm and forest land… some of it the best farmland in the world… at an alarming rate, the equivalent of losing the entire states of Connecticut and Vermont over a six-year period.

Bob Wagner, the Senior Director for Farmland Protection Programs at the American Farmland Trust, spoke to attendees of the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. today and told the group that between 1997 and 2003, America lost 10.5 million acres of farmland and forest.

“Being taken out of production PERMANENTLY!” And Wagner pointed out that this isn’t land that is being retired into some conservation program. He says it is going into commercial development and rural residential developments.

Wagner said the trend does not have to be irreversible. The federal government can help state and local governments by giving them incentives for sustainable growth to lessen the impact on farmland. And the feds need to stop encouraging some unintended consequences.

“We need to get the federal government out of stimulating the development of farmland through highway projects and sewer construction [that makes those areas more attractive to uses other than production agriculture].”

He said more federal funding of conservation easements can protect that good farmland from being lost forever.

Wagner added that the current credit crunch could help stem some of the short term encroachment on American farmland but pointed out that over the last 30 years, even with a number of recessions, we still have lost too much land.

Hear my entire conversation with Bob here: Wagner1.mp3

Download the audio here. (mp3)

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