Orange County Agricultural Preservation Board introduces sustainability plan

On April 8, the Orange County Agricultural Preservation Board presented a draft plan to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners to support agricultural land preservation and enhance the economic viability of farming in the county.

The plan, known as the Agricultural Viability and Farmland Stewardship Plan, outlines actions and policies that Orange County is looking to implement to improve the current state of agriculture within a five-year timeframe, Jane Saiers, a member of the agricultural preservation board, said. 

Peter Sandbeck, a staff support affiliate for the agricultural preservation board and Orange County's cultural resources coordinator, said the draft updated the county’s initial farmland preservation plan from 2009 and has been in progress for around two years.

The plan has three central goals that include recommendations and actions that aim to address the county’s current agricultural issues: making agriculture protection a primary consideration in land use planning, strengthening the opportunities and benefits for farmers to conserve their farmland, and improving the economic viability of farming by providing business opportunities and increasing local demand. 

“They're not making any more land,” Noah Ranells, eastern director for North Carolina FarmLink, said. “So once it's gone to another purpose, it's gone.”

Soil and water conservationists, farmland protection specialists and a number of long-standing farmers helped create the plan, Saiers said

According to a survey sent out to Orange County farmers, the biggest problem they're facing is the high cost of land, as this makes it vulnerable to development and worsens their inability to make a realistic profit from farming, Sandbeck said.

“I've been here for almost 12 years and I've seen the cost of land almost triple, which is astonishing and scary, and I think it's eroding the agricultural capacity of the area,” Ben Grimes, owner of Dawnbreaker Farms, said. 

According to the 2022 census, Orange County farms had an average net cash income of -$2,213 compared to $9,421 in 2017, demonstrating the economic struggle that farmers in the county have faced in recent years. 

The draft offers potential sources of financial support, including deferred taxes from particular plots of farmland and grants from a range of organizations. 

Orange County’s Lands Legacy program works to get land into conservation easements, which are legal agreements that permanently protect existing farmland from development, Saiers said.

“We’re looking at ways to help that program, extend its reach in the county and be able to get land in conservation at a faster rate,” she said.

Highlighting the importance of agriculture as a beneficial industry to Orange County is critical to the goal of conserving farmland, Ranells said. However, Wil Glenn, community relations director for Orange County, said the uncertain state of federal funding, combined with a tight budget year, makes it difficult to determine how much the county will be able to allocate to the plan.

“There are many competing priorities for funding in the county, so I think that we'll need to be creative in finding ways to forward some of our actions in recommendations and actions in the context of the budget,” Saiers said. 

Glenn said during the meeting on April 8, the BOCC provided comments and recommendations to the agricultural preservation board and asked them to return for a follow-up meeting, during which the BOCC will vote on whether to approve the plan.

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