N.C. Department of Agriculture releases funding, seeks to prevent farmland loss

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services recently awarded $18.2 million in farmland preservation grants.

The funding aims to address farmland loss, or a land's transition from agricultural use to another purpose. North Carolina has the estimated second highest rate of farmland loss in the country, according to N.C. FarmLink at North Carolina State University. 

The grants are designed to help farms of all types and sizes while maintaining their private ownership, NCDA&CS Farmland Preservation Director Evan Davis said.

The grant money will support different farmland preservation efforts across the state. The full list of grant recipients can be found in the Sept. 13 press release from the NCDA&CS.  

The grants include over $8 million for agricultural conservation easements. Davis said agricultural conservation easements allow property owners to waive development rights for a property so the land cannot be converted for non-agricultural purposes. 

Additionally, the grants allocate over $5 million for the Local Agricultural Growth Zones program, which gives funding to counties and conservation organizations to create larger blocks of permanently protected land. 

“We will continue to push for more funding to ensure we have the natural resources available to sustain ourselves in the future,” said North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler in a press release.

Director for N.C. FarmLink in Eastern North Carolina Noah Ranells said farms are increasingly replaced by residential development, especially around urban areas. Davis said industrial and commercial development are also encroaching on existing farmland. 

“It's harder for young farmers to get started if they don't already have some type of family business or some type of corporation or partnership with an existing landowner,” Davis said. 

Removing development rights can help make land more affordable for new farmers because they will no longer have to compete with developers, Ranells said. He said agricultural conservation easements also prevent land from being broken down into smaller lots.

“That fragmentation of land, once it's done, essentially, will never be reverted to contiguous farmland acreage,” Ranells said. He added that these smaller lots are more difficult to operate as profitable farms.

North Carolina Growers Association Deputy Director Lee Wicker said farmers are struggling to make enough money for retirement and are often left with no choice but to sell their land for development.

Developers are interested in farmland because it has already been cleared, often making it more affordable. 

“It's the cheapest possible way to stand something up — and the quickest,” Wicker said.

Ranells said the local food system is especially important during crises that interrupt the national and industrial food systems, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The less land devoted to farming, Rannells said, the more vulnerable people are during these crises.

Davis said the agricultural land development results in excessive water runoff, thus increasing flooding in North Carolina.

When land is developed, impermeable surfaces such as rooftops and roads prevent rainwater from infiltrating the soil, creating stormwater runoff, Davis said. 

Davis said that to avoid additional flooding concerns, the agricultural easements have impervious surface limits, which restrict how much of an area can be taken up by surfaces that cannot be penetrated by rainwater.

Wicker said while he supports efforts to preserve farms, he thinks the state needs to do more to support farmers themselves.

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