COMMENTS AND NOTES: SOME PROPOSITIONS ABOUT THE PRESERVATION OF FARM LAND

Abstract

Here are some proposi tions about the preservation of farm land. Are they val id and meaningful? I. The focus on land in preservatio n efforts tends to be mi sleading. It produces thoughts about how to keep a physical object intact, implies that farm character inheres in the land, and diverts atte ntion from the ultimate objectives sought. Land as a physical object actually is very durable. Farmin~ makes plain land into farm land, and farming is not durable. Ultimate objectives commonly include attractive pastoral scenes, food and open space. Farming is necessary to food production and to the maintenance of some kinds of pastoral sce nes , but is not necessa ry to open space. 2. The preservation of farming is a much more complex undertaking than the preservation of a physical object. 3. Farming requires farmers, and continued farming requires certain behavior by farmers. If food and farm types of pastoral sce nes are desired, proposals for preserving farm land must be evaluated in terms of their effects on farmer behavior. 4 . A focus on the preservation of farm land also tends to limit concern to instances in which land is totally diverted to a nonfarm use. The construction of a new subdivision, factory, or shopping mall in a corn field or orchard is very impressive. However, the slow and inconspicuous infiltration to nonfarm uses into farming areas can discourage farmers from maintaining aggressive farm businesses and since nonfarm scatteration is widespread and growing rapidly, the debilitation of farming it produces can reduce food production more than the transfer of land to nonfarm uses at suburban margins . 5. Zoning has not demonstrated its ability to assure a supply of skillful, diligent and optimistic farmers in areas of nonfarm infiltration. 6. Zoning is not likely to hold the line at suburban fringes. Zoning ordinances once enacted have traditionally retreated before concentrated suburban pressure. Also, the people in many of the rural areas adjacent to suburbs refuse to enact zoning ordinances. Action at the state level is needed to put effective exclusive agricultural zoning in place. Such state action has been proposed as part of comprehensive state planning in many instances (note especially Vermont and New York) but has been rejected . The state proposals have endangered land use control autonomy in the suburbs, and therefore are unacceptable to suburbanities. 7. Farmers already are outnumbered in their home communities by nonfarmers over large areas of the East and there is no practical way to roll this back. 8. A large part of the new nonfarmers added each year to rural populations are the children of local nonfarmers. Nonfarm rural people are strongly attached to their rural lifestyle. The income earning capacity of most is too low to support life in