Twenty-five years of farmland preservation

Since the Pennsylvania Farmland Preservation program started 25 years ago, 480,146 acres and 4,492 farms have been permanently preserved. [Lancaster Farming, Oct. 19, 2013].  It isn’t nearly enough, and farmland in this state is still being developed at an alarming rate (One of the farms less than a half mile east of our farm has been subdivided into 36 lots).  Nonetheless, almost half a million acres is nothing to sneeze at.

Twenty-three of those 480,146 acres are owned by Linda and me.  I am so pleased to be a part of the program.  Houses will never be built on that land, even after we are both no longer here.  That is a good legacy.