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PRESERVE AND PROTECT: Farm-Focused Center to Help Keep Agriculture Healthy

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 May 2006, 15:03 CDT

By Monique Curet, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

May 10--With land prices on the rise and more people seeking housing outside city limits, the temptation is strong to sell farmland for development.

And it appears that some Ohio farmers are giving in to temptation. The state ranks second in the nation for the amount of prime farmland lost to development between 1987 and 1997, according to American Farmland Trust, a nonprofit organization that works to protect agricultural resources.

"We stand to lose a whole host of things" by losing farmland, said Jill Clark, interim director of the recently opened Center for Farmland Policy Innovation at Ohio State University.

The losses can be economic, environmental and social, she said.

Now local governments in Ohio that are interested in protecting farmland and keeping agriculture viable can join with the Center for Farmland Policy Innovation to help achieve their goals.

The center, which focuses on promoting new approaches to preservation, began with $400,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Clark was a member of the group that generated the proposal for the center; she formerly served as Ohio field director for the American Farmland Trust.

Many local leaders are interested in balancing the development in their communities with the protection of farms, Clark said. But they often lack the resources or expertise to put programs in place.

The center will collaborate with local governments to create and implement programs unique to Ohio, a model that Clark calls "a land laboratory." Most of the center's funding will be spent on projects.

"This is not a research facility. It's an action center," Clark said.

The center's role likely will be different in each project and could range from bringing in experts to providing seed money. Right now, the center is accepting letters indicating interest in specific goals or projects, Clark said.

It already received one such letter from Geauga County, which has had a farmlandpreservation program since 1999. Leaders there want to create a revolving-loan fund for farmers who want to make capital improvements, such as an addition to a barn or a new silo, said David Dietrich, the county's planning director.

The proposed revolving fund would loan money below the prime rate; farmers who receive loans would have to take steps to make sure their land will not be developed.

"We need their level of expertise because at the local level, we don't have it, quite frankly," Dietrich said of working with the center.

Michael Bailey, executive director of the farmland-preservation office of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, said that the department sees the center "filling a very critical niche in Ohio."

It's important to continue to expand the tools and techniques available to local governments that want to protect farmland, Bailey said.

The center will issue a request for proposals in early June, with the deadline likely to be in early fall, Clark said. Its leaders hope to work on three or four projects a year.

mcuret@dispatch.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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