State Policies to Preserve Farmland

While agriculture has a rich tradition in the United States, farmers are facing a new set of challenges in the 21st century. A number of factors have contributed to the increasing conversion of farmland, for housing, office, retail, and commercial development. These include rising housing costs in urban cores and in suburbs; the relocation of jobs to the fringes of communities where land is cheaper and parking and amenities more plentiful; and a general pattern of low-density, sprawling development reaching exurban areas past the suburban edge.

As communities expand into former farmland and rural areas, farmers faced with rising land values and economic hardship (due in part to the increased costs of doing business in a developing region) begin to sell their land. This can lead to neighboring farmers facing complaints of nuisance (such as complaints about noise and odor) from new residential neighborhoods as farmland is converted to nonfarm uses.

States have implemented a number of programs that support farmers in maintaining the viability of their farms, particularly those situated near urban edges, which can be the most vulnerable to development pressures and also the most productive farmland for agriculture.

State policies that are assisting in the preservation of farmland (and farm-related jobs) include:

• Conservation easements,
• Purchase of development rights,
• Tax incentives to farmers to make farming more economically viable,
• State land conservation purchasing programs, and
• Right-to-farm laws.