CULPEPER, Virginia, October 4, 2002 (ENS) - The rate of loss of prime agricultural land in Virginia has increased by 76 percent in the last five years, finds a new study by the American Farmland Trust (AFT). The study, "Farming on the Edge," finds that Virginia developed 105,000 acres of its highest quality farmland between 1992 and 1997, ranking among the top 20 states in prime acres lost. As a nation, the United States converted more than six million acres to other uses during the same period - an area about equal to the size of Maryland.
"Keeping farmland affordable is critical to the future of agriculture in Virginia," said Wes Kent, a young dairy farmer from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. "The rising cost of land combined with the costs of production make it nearly impossible for young farmers to get a start."
"Vital farming areas like the Shenandoah Valley that are struggling with drought, disease and depressed local economies are vulnerable to the demand for land, particularly along the Interstate 81 corridor," said Mary Heinricht, Mid-Atlantic regional director for AFT. "The governor and legislature have made a commitment to protecting our working lands, but the fiscal crunch facing Virginia makes it extremely difficult to find funding. The citizens and communities of Virginia will need to continue to 'step up to the plate' to assure the future of agriculture and farmland in the Commonwealth."
To help staunch the loss of working lands, "Farming on the Edge" calls for national, regional and local policy changes to redirect development away from high quality farmland. Some changes have already come to the Commonwealth.
"The Virginia Agricultural Vitality Program, which gained universal support from legislators and has been actively promoted by farm and conservation organizations, will give communities the support needed to guarantee the future of farming in the Commonwealth," said state Senator Emmett Hanger, a Republican. "American Farmland Trust's 'Farming on the Edge' study maps the threat to Virginia's highly productive agricultural lands and gives us another tool to use when planning for their protection."
In September, Virginia was allocated $1.5 million in federal Farmland Protection Program money from the federal 2002 Farm Bill. Local programs and non-profits have taken the initiative to secure the federal funding for land protection by providing matching money.
"In spite of the hard economic times, Virginia communities are funding land protection, showing just how dire the need is and how great the commitment to our agricultural resources," Heinricht said. "And even without a funded state farmland protection program, Virginia is successfully implementing innovative tools like a transferable tax credit on easement donations and a state farm transition program to help ease the transfer of working lands to the next generation of farmers."
AFT is a private, nonprofit farmland conservation organization founded in 1980 to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment.
The "Farming on the Edge" study and maps are available at: http://www.farmland.org:
