Saving Farmland, Saving Farms

It has been estimated that the United States loses two acres of agricultural land every minute to development. If this trend continues, farmers will not have access to sufficient, affordable farmland to grow the variety of fruits, vegetables, and livestock that feeds us all. This is why land trusts work to ensure our productiveland is protected and available for farming.

Land trusts preserve in perpetuity the land that provides our nation’s bounty. Land trusts permanently conserve not only forests and watersheds but also fields and pasture. For many farmers, conservation easements are the only way that they are able to keep working their land. Easements have allowed farmland to pass from one generation to the next, while keeping the family farm intact and maintaining an important community resource.

Land trusts help to protect New Hampshire’s and Maine’s working landscapes and rural traditions. Without the efforts of the land trusts, our community would have no assurances that our farmland and forests will continue to exist and to provide benefits for all, including healthful food and clean water, wildlife habitat and open space.

In this year’s edition of Seacoast Harvest, we have asked farmers to acknowledge the organizations that conserve their land, and that info is found within their listing under “Conservation Easements”. Seacoast Eat Local and Slow Food Seacoast encourage you to support the land trusts of NH and Maine that are conserving the Seacoast’s farmland. Thank you to Bear-Paw Regional Greenways, Kittery Land Trust, Southeast Land Trust of NH and Strafford Rivers Conservancy for their support.