Conservation Easements Mean Farmland, not Farming
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Editor's Note: The lie of farmland conservation easements. The easement does not guarantee, as Rep. John Piotti says, the land will stay in farming forever. Farming demands farmers. If no farmer is willing to buy/use this land as a working farm - it will simply lie fallow. The challenge then will be to keep it from becoming a forest.
VillageSoup
12/31/06
Palermo farmers donate conservation easement
By Staff
PALERMO (Dec 31): A 128-acre farm belonging to Millard and Colleen Saban will be permanently protected from commercial or residential development. The Sabans recently donated a conservation easement to Maine Farmland Trust...
Said John Piotti, executive director of Maine Farmland Trust. "Because of this easement, this land will stay in farming forever."
http://waldo.villagesoup.com/community/story.cfm?storyID=84359
Kris, How about all the midwestern and western farmers that are paid not to grow crops?
You are right Country, Maine is peanuts compared to the government hand outs to some of the large farm states. But on the other hand, in some parts of the country farmers actually make money by farming.
Most (not all) sucessful farms have a person devoted to finding and applying for government handouts.
Back in the late 40's and early 50's gov't began to seriously interfere with the economics of farming and provide subsidies to large farms. There was strong resistance to this by NH hill farmers. In spite of the hardships of farming in hill country, they (who should have gotten subsidies themselves) were against gov't interfering with the economics of agriculture. It's too bad the gov't didn't listen to them.
Farm Subsidy Database
Conservation easements are about power and control. When a land owner sells part of his ownership, he gives up some of his power and control. The easement is valuable as a long term investment for the alphabet soup of environmental organizations because they are all controlled by wealthy foundations. Years from now when those easements are extremely valuable those wealthy elitists will make a killing selling off their power and control so the land can be farmed or logged again; or they may just farm or log it themselves. One thing is sure; The seller will never get it back. He will always be controlled by the elitists.
What Roger said. With this addition: that sort of well-sounding cancer is quietly but steadily nibbling away at public lands & the public's ability to fully enjoy them.
Years from now when those easements are extremely valuable those wealthy elitists will make a killing selling off their poweer and control so the land can be farmed or logged again; or they mnay just fgarm or log it themselves.
:?:
More conservation by the USDA
WASHINGTON, May 25, 2012
USDA Announces Results for Conservation Reserve Program General Sign-Up
"Currently, there are more than 29.6 million acres enrolled on more than 736,000 contracts."
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Did you know that hundreds of ex-farmers in Maine are being paid thousands of dollars by the government to not farm their land?
Most retired farmers around here are getting contracts for about fifty bucks an acre annually to not let their farms be farmed. I know one retired farmer that says he gets enough to pay all of his property taxes and home and farm insurances. Pretty good sense he would not be farming that land anyway.
I know of land that has been in the "soil bank" for over 20 years with no expences for certain conservation measures.
http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/farmbills/conservation-expanded.html