The Protection of Farmland: An Analysis of Various State and Local Approaches

Abstract

In the last decade, many state and local governments, recognizing that significant amounts of their farmland were being converted to non-farm uses, have initiated programs that sought, in one way or another, to slow the pace of conversion. This article will review, in a general way, the actions that these governments have taken. The authors, together with J. Dixon Esseks, William Toner, and Lisa Rosenburger, have prepared a comprehensive study of these programs, The Protection of Farmland: A Reference Guidebook for State and Local Governments (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981), to which the reader is referred for a more complete discussion.¹ The Guidebook was part of the work of the National Agricultural Lands Study (NALS), an intensive 18-month analysis of the problem of farmland conversion, cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Council on Environmental Quality, and eight other federal agencies. In addition to the Guidebook, NALS has published a final report, numerous technical papers, a Primer on Agricultural Zoning, and 18 case studies on agricultural land protection programs.