Leahy authored the program --
initially as a pilot effort only in Vermont -- and included in
the 1990 Farm Bill. Since then it has protected more
than 80,000 acres of Vermont’s farmland from urban
sprawl. Because of the program’s success, Leahy expanded
it to a national program in the 1996 Farm Bill and this year
led in expanding its budget from the earlier level of $35
million to $985 million, over the next ten years, in the new
Farm Bill. Leahy is a senior member of the Senate
Agriculture Committee and is also a former chairman of the
panel.
"Protecting working farmland
helps our vital agricultural sector while preserving the open
spaces that define Vermont’s character," said Leahy.
“These funds will help keep farms strong while protecting
thousands of acres of farmland and open space from urban
sprawl.”
As cities and
towns grow, more than one million acres of farmland have been
disappearing each year. Leahy’s Farmland Protection
Program helps communities preserve farmland and open space
through the purchase of conservation easements, which limit or
prohibit future development on the land. Farmers who
participate in this program are then compensated for keeping
land in use as farmland or open space, instead of selling off
their farms to developers. USDA provides up to 50
percent of the appraised fair market values of the
conservation easements.
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