Assessing the Performance of Farmland Preservation in America’s Farmland Preservation Heartland: A Policy Review

Abstract

Farmland preservation has been an important issue in the United States for over 40 years. Since 1977, 28 states and over 95 local governments have formed farmland preservation programs to acquire development rights from willing farm owners. These programs have preserved over three and a half million acres. Private nonprofit land trusts have preserved nearly three million acres.

Maryland and Pennsylvania have preserved nearly one million acres, accounting for almost one-sixth of the nation’s preserved agricultural land. Ten adjoining counties in Pennsylvania and Maryland have preserved 660,000 acres, or one-tenth of the nation’s preserved agricultural land. This paper defines “large scale preservation” and analyzes the funding mechanisms and land use policies that have enabled these ten counties to achieve it. The paper also identifies additional indicators of preservation success that give a more complete picture of the long-term viability of agriculture as an industry.

Keywords:

• Farmland preservation
• farm output
• conservation easement
• acres