Saving The Farmland

Seeing farmland being gobbled up for development is an issue that more and more people in rural Wisconsin are getting concerned about each day. Especially when it comes to young and beginning farmers trying to find land to buy for farming. It's because of these concerns that Rod Nilsestuen, Secretary of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection appointed a panel to look into the problem and try to find some workable solutions.

Margaret Krome is a member of the state board of DATCP and also contributes to the Capitol Times newspaper. http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/index.php?ntid=93253&ntpid=0

Of interest:

Not only in southern Wisconsin, but across the state, farmland is being
converted to housing and commercial uses at alarming rates. From 1950 through
the 1990s, Wisconsin lost 24 percent of its farmland, leaving the rest
fragmented and expensive. Forest land also is becoming more fragmented as large
owners sell lots for housing and recreational uses.

Even in 40 years time, 24 percent is a sizable chunk of land. But the question I always ask is, Can you blame a farmer for selling? Krome asks that as well.

So shall we hate farmers for selling out? Farmers whose livelihoods are
vulnerable to extremes of climate and market changes? Farmers whose profession
is one of the nation's most dangerous and who, as small-business owners, must
pay their own health insurance? Farmers who worked hard for years, likely never
made large incomes from farming and count on the added value from the
development potential of their land to secure their retirement?

No? Well, then, let's blame developers, right? They're the ones who
convert the land and make a pretty penny as they do it, right? Alas, it's not so
rational to hate developers either. After all, few developers are so foolish as
to purchase land without a clear market for their housing or commercial
developments. Simply put, housing demand is growing, as our population grows and
people seek second homes.

The report is due out sometime this week, and among the ideas generated:

• Supporting initiatives that advance marketing and agriculturally based
economic development, to help keep farming profitable.
• Updating the
Farmland Preservation Program to improve agricultural planning and zoning,
increase tax credits, and improve the flexibility of local governments to
administer the program.
• Creating a new Working Lands Enterprise Areas
program to foster clustering of active farms and slow farmland conversion.
•
Creating a new purchase of development rights grant program to permanently
preserve selected properties.
• Promoting opportunities to increase land use
density, to use land more efficiently and reduce demand for conversion of
working lands.
• Creating beginning farmer and logger programs.
• Helping
local governments implement working lands programs and educating the public
about them.

Obviously, as Krome notes, these things need to be paid for if implemented. But before we cross that bridge, we'll need to take an in-depth look at the panel's ideas. Some may be feasible, some may not.

As the old song goes, further along we'll know more about it.