The Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board recently added 2,512 acres on 33 farms to its farmland preservation program.
The investment totaled $9.4 million, including nearly $8.9 million in state funds, more than $540,000 in county funding, and $15,000 from townships.
The 33 farms are operation in Berks, Centre, Chester, Dauphin, Erie, Franklin, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Perry, Westmoreland, and York counties. They are crop, fruit and vegetable, equine, dairy, and livestock farms.
“Pennsylvania farmers sacrifice to put food on our tables in good times and bad,” Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said. “Pennsylvania’s Farmland Preservation program is a covenant between farmers and government to protect our priceless land resources. It is the foundation of food security and a joint investment in feeding our future.”
The farmland preservation program launched in 1988 when federal, state, county, and local governments purchased more than $1.6 billion in permanent easements on 5,756 Pennsylvania farms totaling 586,884 acres in 59 counties.
The easements ensure the land will continue to be used for agriculture in the future.
In 2019, the PA Farm Bill created the Agricultural Business Development Center and a realty transfer tax exemption for the transfer of preserved farmland to a qualified beginning farmer.