Farming creates jobs, contributes to the global food supply and increasingly provides fresh produce for local markets. It also helps to shape a state's character.

When agricultural land is converted to development, residents must obtain their food from more distant sources, agriculture industries suffer, open space disappears and communities often lose a sense of where they came from and who they are. The change also can place a burden on local and state governments. New land uses require new infrastructure, and developed land — particularly housing — tends to demand more services than farms do.

This section offers policy ideas that can help preserve farmland, so that agriculture continues to be a source of community stability, economic vitality and environmental sustainability for generations to come. Specifically, we discuss strategies to keep farmland in production, to reduce development pressure and to support conservation.

Policies

• Protect farmland by coordinating state spending and permitting decisions
• Establish a program for purchase of agricultural conservation easements
• Provide grants to develop Farmland Protection Plans
• Establish an agricultural district program
• Help localities adopt right-to-farm ordinances
• Help localities adopt zoning codes that support agricultural tourism
• Establish direct marketing and institutional purchasing programs
• Establish an Agricultural Viability Program