ABSTRACT
With the advent of Agriculture and Farmland Protection Planning in 1995, Tompkins County is making progress, but not along a path focused solely on farmland preservation. The efforts being made illustrate an approach to farmland protection through dual strategies intended to strengthen local agriculture and build supportive land use policies—and thereby retain farmland. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets administers a grant program for counties to develop agriculture and farmland protection plans. The State has allocated $4,000,000 for the purchase of conservation easements on farmland. This allocation is consistent with the popular belief that sprawl and development are the primary causes of farmland loss. Unfortunately, no State funds have been directed toward efforts to strengthen agriculture at the local level. The county's stated goals are an attempt to address its weaknesses in farmland protection policy in a unified manner in full recognition of the interdependence of the stakeholders, the issues, and the proposed solutions.
