Hot News

10.01.2007

By Tamara Scully
AFP Correspondent

Hampton Township, Sussex County — Is the availability of preserved farmland a problem for New Jersey farmers?
The State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC) has been traveling throughout the state, giving presentations and collecting farmer input from all 21 counties to determine whether the Farmland Preservation Program is working to maintain New Jersey’s dwindling agricultural landscape. Farmland affordability and the Farmland Preservation Program’s role in maintaining a viable agricultural economy in the state are the topics being discussed.
“The purpose of the outreach presentations is to visit with counties and discuss some of the trends, observations and issues we’ve seen regarding farmland availability/affordability and get input from farmers,” said Dave Kimmel of the SADC. “What do they think? What are they seeing in their county? Do they see the availability of preserved farmland for farmers as a problem? If so, what should be done? We want to know what the ag community thinks and hear their ideas.”
In late August, Kimmel and Gary Terhune visited the Sussex County Board of Agriculture to hear how farmers in the northwest part of the state felt about these issues.
Speaking to a crowd of about two dozen farmers and ag-related professionals and armed with statistics and data, the presenters explored the farmland preservation issues:
Is preserved farmland in the county owned by farmers or non-farmers? Is it being actively or minimally farmed? Does it matter? What type of farming business is being conducted on preserved farmland? How does the value of preserved farmland compare to that of unrestricted agricultural land? Is having preserved farmland owned by non-farmers and leased to farmers an issue? Would restricting the available housing opportunity on preserved land limit its acquisition by estate owners and free up more land for farmers?
In New Jersey, according to SADC statistics, preserved farmland is roughly valued at 30 percent of the unrestricted appraised value, based on figures collected from 2000-05.
Land values for unrestricted as well as preserved land have risen steadily.
The average sale price, statewide, for preserved farmland is approximately $11,000 per acre, putting New Jersey land amongst the priciest in the nation. In some counties, the price is much higher. The sale price on preserved land is consistently slightly higher than the appraisal value.
What type of farming activity allows the farmer the ability to afford land at $11,000 an acre?
SADC data indicates that frequently it is those in the nursery or the equine industry who are purchasing the preserved land, while vegetable farmers, orchardists, dairy and grain farmers are not. If only certain sections of the agricultural industry are able to afford the going rate for preserved farmland — and these are not the people growing food or feed crops — then what is the overall outlook for farming in New Jersey?
The SADC task force was formed in 2004 by New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Charles Kuperus and was given the responsibility to study the Farmland Preservation Program, to determine if it was fulfilling its duty of protecting agriculture lands and the agricultural industry and to suggest possible solutions if it was not.
The Agricultural Retention and Development Act, from which the Farmland Preservation Program derives, was designed “to preserve a mass of farmland, for productive agricultural use, to sustain and support a viable agricultural industry,” according to SADC literature.
The SADC is asking the agricultural community to comment on the success of the Farmland Preservation Program in upholding the Act, and to suggest any possible changes or modifications to the Farmland Preservation Program that might help to better preserve farmers, not just farmland, in New Jersey.
In addition, the SADC has already developed some potential “ideas for consideration” for which it is soliciting farmer input.
The group of Sussex County farmers found the issue of tightening the requirements for buyers of preserved farmland to be the most controversial of the several ideas presented by the SADC. Heated debate regarding the changed wording of the program requirements to state that preserved farmland remain “in,” rather than “retained for” agricultural production, occurred.
Liz Jackson, a beginning Hampton Township farmer, was outspoken about the need for young farmers who are not fortunate enough to come from families who already farm, or to have enough accumulated wealth from careers outside of agriculture to purchase land, to have access to preserved farmland.
“If public funds are used in this program, strategies need to be implemented to restrict who can apply and how the land is used. Some language that states, ‘in farm use’ and setting a time frame of farm use that the forces the purchasing party to think about their acquisition of the land” would help to eliminate non-farmer buyers, Jackson said. “There are plenty of existing organizations that facilitate the sale or transfer of development rights for private citizens. Public farm preservation dollars should be restricted to preserving the farmer, the farm and farming.”
Those opposing the suggestion to change the requirements to those which would call for preserved farmland to actually be farmed were also discussed.
“The sale of these preserved farms should also be done with a blind eye to income or status as farmers. To restrict the sale of preserved farms to other farmers would necessarily reduce sales price and punish the farmer seller. Indeed, such a restriction would seem to be a violation of private ownership rights. The state does not own the land, it just paid the owner to relinquish develpment rights,” Carla Kostelnik said. “While it would be ideal to actively farm preserved farmland, it should not be mandatory.”
Kostelnik acknowledged the need for more intensive beginning farmer initiatives in New Jersey.
“There is a need to keep young farmers in New Jersey. This should be a separate program that would give grants to young farmers to buy properties to farm. They could pay back when they sell the farm, by reducing the sale price by the amount of the grant plus interest,” she said.
Other SADC recommendations include restrictions on housing size and the number of housing units allowed to be built on preserved farmland and preserving land with no housing opportunities.
The purpose of these and several other propositions is to ensure that preserved farmland remain available to those who will actively and productively farm it.
The concern that the New Jersey Farmland Preservation Program is protecting the land but not the farmer is not new.
Are estate buyers taking productive farmland off of the market, and using taxpayer dollars in a manner not intended by the act when they purchase preserved farmland? Are high-end agricultural segments, such as the nursery and equine industries, removing preserved farmland from crop farmers? Is having a non-farm owner of preserved farmland leasing the land to a farmer creating a system of tenant farming, where the farmer is disinclined to practice the stewardship that would otherwise be put in place on farmland that the farmer actually owned, and where the money invested in such measures would benefit the farmer, not the non-farm landowner?
Is land in the Farmland Preservation Program meant to be utilized to its full agricultural potential or is it acceptable that many farmland preserved acres throughout the state are minimally engaged in any productive agriculture, and simply being used as large residential housing lots? And what impact does this have upon the pricing of land in the Farmland Preservation Program?
The SADC presentations will continue and are available to all counties.
A schedule of programs is available at www.state.nj.us/agriculture/sadc/farmavailabilityschedule.htm.
Comments can be sent to: sadc@ag.state.nj.us. The SADC can also be reached by phone at 609-984-2504.
New Jersey farmers are invited to contribute their input and suggestions, and to decide if the Farmland Preservation Program is contributing to the “strengthening of the agricultural industry” and is maintaining a land base “where agriculture will be presumed the first priority use of the land,” as it is regulated to do according to the mandates of New Jersey’s Agricultural Retention and Development Act.