ABSTRACT
The Great Seal of Ohio depicts a sheaf of wheat beside a bundle of 17 arrows on a cultivated field. There are plenty of reasons for Ohioans to value their state's farmland. In addition to the $56.2 billion in annual income generated by the Ohio agriculture industry, which also provides onesixth of the state's jobs, farmland provides fresh food and other farm products, open space, wildlife habitat and a host of other environmental and "quality of life" benefits. The June 1997 report by the Ohio Farmland Preservation Task Force to Ohio Governor George V. Voinovich outlined the many political, social and environmental issues related to farmland loss in the state, and called on the governor to "endorse a policy statement establishing that it is a priority of the State of Ohio to preserve the state's productive agricultural land and protect against its unnecessary and irretrievable conversion to nonagricultural uses".
