DIS-Lancaster Farming Saturday, May 12,1990
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F
A
R
MANAGEMENT
HOW TO
PRESERVE FARMLAND?
(The first of a 7-part series.)
Roland P. Freund
Farm Management Agent
Many farmers wish to continue
to till the best soils in Pennsylvani
a. The majority of the state’s voters
in 1987 agreed that something
should be done to enable them to
do just that. So they authorized the
commonwealth to float a $ 100 mil-
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lion bond issue. We now have
county boards being formed to
administer the new farmland pre
servation program which the legis
lature authorized.
With all the emotion and politi
cal activity going on, it seems pru
dent that farm managers examine
the facts and understand the issues.
In a series of articles in this col
umn, we shall attempt to cover the
major concerns that are facing far
mers who consider applying for a
conservation easement.
Why is prime land lost? Pres
sures on land spreads out through
our rural areas from the New York-
Washington megalopolis. This
tideswell for change meets little
resistance because of the economic
and political circumstances of our
rural communities, where:
a. The returns from crop pro
duction are low. In a normal crop
rotation, we are lucky if we can
earn $5O per acre per year as return
to land.
b. Farmers can get a very
attractive gain when they sell land
to the highest bidder. There is a
strong demand for prime agricul
tural land, which is also the easiest
to develop.
c. Landowners have a great
deal of liberty and the rights to do
as they wish with the land they
own. Pennsylvania has been very
careful to protect these rights.
d. Development in the form of
home building faces very little
challenge in most communities.
Even industrial construction is
Bussen Earns Honorable Mention
FORT ATKINSON, Wis.
Steve Bussen of Monsanto Agri
cultural Company in Ephrata,
Pennsylvania captured Honorable
Mention in the 1990 Hoard’s
Dairyman Cow Judging Contest
for agri-marketers.
Bussen competed against
almost 1,200 contestants and had a
score of 464 out of a possible 500.
For his achievement, he
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normally controlled by the lowest
level of local government the
township.
Under these circumstances, it is
perhaps surprising that we are not
seeing a faster pace of farmland
loss.
How do other countries presave
farmland? In Europe, where peo
ple have starved in this century,
national policies dictates some
self-sufficiency in food. It is a false
assumption to say that it is
achieved through subsidized
agriculture.
In Australia, there is very little
agricultural subsidy and a popula
tion not much greater than Pen
nsylvania’s. Yet on that continent,
which is the size of mainland
U.S.A., construction is restricted
by law to designated areas of
towns, suburbs, and cities.
Countries which preserve farm
land also require that property
owners maintain, preserve, and
restore the inner city and the subur
ban and the small town environ
ments. Failure to do this leads to
the flight to the country.
Earlier Pennsylvania laws
Farmland preservation is not a
new idea. In 1968, Act 247 as
ammended gave authority for agri
cultural zoning. In the same year.
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received a specially good long
horn of Hoard’s Dairyman Ched
dar cheese and an attractive wal
nut wall plaque, plus national
publicity.
“Hoard’s Dairyman,” the
national dairy farm magazine, has
sponsored a pictoral cow judging
contest for its readers for 60 years.
Bussen placed in a special divi
sion for agribusiness men and
women.
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Act 442 provided for the purchase
of development rights.
In 1974, Act 319 the so
called “Clean and Green Act”
gave landowners the option to use
an agricultural value and thus
reduce real estate taxes. This is
being used extensively where reas
sessment raised taxes on farmland.
Act 43 of 1981 the Agricul
tural Area Security Act —enabled
farmers to join together to form
“Agricultural Security Areas.”
The 1982, Act 133—“ Right-t
o was designed to protect
farmers from “nuisance” suits.
These laws have prepared the
way for the new program of selling
conservation easements. How this
process works and how it might
impact farm families who sell
easements will be covered in this
senes.
Subjects to be covered in future
articles include:
• Agricultural security areas.
• Conservation easements.
• Farm-use value.
• Family considerations.
• Tax implications.
• Long-term financial impact.
Watch for these articles and
contact your local cooperative
extension office for more informa
tion on farmland preservation.
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