The American Farmland Trust was founded in 1980 and has been working hard ever since to preserve America’s farms. One way they are doing this is through their Farm Legacy Program. Kara O’Connor, Midwest Philanthropy Officer for American Farmland Trust says that this program provides landowners with the peace of mind that their farm will always remain a farm.
“We know many people who are wondering what’s going to come next for their farm and would hate to see it turned into a development,” says O’Connor. “However, through a tool called an agriculture conservation easement, we can give farmers a promise that their farm will stay a farm.”
This program is great for individuals who don’t have a next generation or people interested in taking over the farm. The farmer can donate their farm to American Farmland Trust and then they will protect it through the easement which is a deed restriction. This means it runs with the land and will apply for any future owner to ensure that the land can never be sold to a developer.
O’Connor adds “One of the things that this kind of protection does is it makes the land more affordable. We generally sell the land at its appraised value and once it’s protected with an easement, that value is a little lower, making it more affordable for beginning farmers.”
The income American Farmland Trust receives from the sale is put back into programs that they offer. One of which is to help local governments develop their own farmland protection programs. A second initiative they put it towards is smart solar projects.
“What’s particularly notable in the Midwest is something that American Farmland Trust has a phenomenon that we’ve noted called low density residential development,” explains O’Connor. That’s your residential development where you have one resident on 20-40 acres that doesn’t house very many people, but breaks up farmland.”
Once that land is lost to residential small plots, it is rarely turned back into use for agriculture production. Between 2001 and 2016, Wisconsin lost nearly 250,000 acres of agricultural land. Much of that land was lost to low density residential development. This makes having a local level farmland protection program a great tool to have.
To learn more about American Farmland Trust, they can contact the information center at 800-370-4879 or visit their website.
Leave a Reply