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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Loss of Farms and Productive Farmland
  • Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 10:23:53 -0600


Loss of Farms and Productive Farmland
http://www.lastgreatplaces.org/berkshire/geography/art6552.html

Looking at our landscape today, you'd never know that fifty working farms
once enlivened Egremont. Today, you'll find only three farms in that town;
the land of one farm recently sold for $1 million.

Such drastic reductions in farms and farm lands aren't just occurring in
Egremont; they're occurring all over the Berkshire Taconic Landscape.

Why are farms being lost?
1. Pressure from development. The rising prices of land, as well as the low
profits offered by farming, are making it increasingly harder for farmers
to resist selling all or part of their farms.
2. Generation gaps. Farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to find
people to carry on their work. Younger generations are much less likely to
choose the challenging life of farming. Often, when a key farm leader or
employee retires or leaves, the farm falls apart because that person isn't
replaceable.
3. Start-up cost. As the value of land and houses continues to rise,
outside farmers are unable to purchase farms in this landscape.
4. Retirement Funds. Most long-term farming families have more invested in
their land than in retirement income. As their single greatest asset, some
farmers rely on selling their land to support their retirements. The people
who buy the farmland are increasingly interested in developing it or using
it as a second home rather than farming it.
Sheep farm in Alford
Small farms face the constant threat of development.
© Samantha Williams

Other pressures on farms
Farmers are also losing the infrastructure of support that they need to
continue farming. Without a "critical mass" of farms in a region, many
farm-based businesses and services no longer find it efficient to continue
supporting that region with their goods. Many local farming-related
businesses, including farming supply stores, no longer carry essential farm
equipment. Instead they offer products like bird feeders and yard and
garden tools. That makes it hard for local farmers to get the supplies they
need. And milk trucks may only come by for pickup if there are enough dairy
farms on a route, leaving the last surviving dairy farmers without
transportation for their milk.

Restoring and Maintaining Farms
Many organizations and individuals are working to protect and restore
working farms; many state and federal funds are now available to farmers to
help them keep their land and maintain its productivity. The Massachusetts
Agricultural Protection Restriction (APR) Program is a competitive program
that places conservation easements on eligible farmland. Under this
program, the state government pays farmers for the permanent development
rights of their farmland, and the farmer only pays taxes on the reduced
value of the land. Agricultural easements are also used in Connecticut and
New York.

Many people who are working to keep local agriculture thriving believe that
the issue of loss of farms is inseparable from the issue of affordable
housing and that farms can be viable if we can keep land and homes
affordable. The Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires combines
affordable housing, farm preservation, and conservation in an innovative
land ownership partnership.

Farmers are also working hard to get connected with local customers,
through restaurant partnerships, farmers markets, and the cultivation of
products for specialized markets.
--------------


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
--Henry David Thoreau







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