Population growth along the Wasatch Front has come at the expense of some of the state’s most important — and irreplaceable — farmlands.
Starting in the 1980s, the loss of farmland to housing tracts, strip malls and developments became a worry. Since then, the loss of valuable, productive acreage has only escalated, impacting the state’s ability to grow local foods and threatening our food security, said Agriculture Department spokesman Larry Lewis.
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Utah’s vanishing farmlands
1900 to 1990 » The number of farms sharply declined, down from nearly 29,000 operations to 14,000.
1990 to 1997 » The number of operations began increasing, but farm size has steadily decreased.
Today’s farms » Average farm size is 200 acres less than 20 years ago; farmers’ average age is 57.
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Last week, a state task force charged with identifying preservation tools reported that if transportation corridors were blocked in an emergency, Utahns’ dinner tables would be short on meat, eggs, bread, vegetables and fruit coming from out of state. Utah farmers would be able to provide only enough dairy products to see its residents through, but nothing else.
Paved-over farmlands and little or no tools to protect remaining acreage are the culprits, according to a report by the 29-member task force released to a legislative appropriations committee at the Capitol.
Until only recently, legislation to protect critical agriculture acres has languished in the Utah Legislature.
And even on other fronts, Gov. Gary Herbert has declined this year to add funding to the state’s only agricultural program that qualifies for matching federal conservation dollars. If more money isn’t forthcoming, the LeRay McAlister Fund will die, its executive director has repeatedly said.
As with any budgetary issue, it’s a matter of choices, said Herbert spokeswoman Allyson Isom. "As a former member of the Quality Growth Commission, Governor Herbert continues to support the mission of the LeRay McAlister Fund. It’s simply a matter of finite money, infinite demands, and prioritizing greater needs.
"For fiscal year 2013, the fund has $900,000, which was carried over from prior years. Due to a tight budget and a desire to provide much-needed resources in other areas, such as education, no funds were added to the LeRay McAlister program. We decided to utilize the existing funds for the coming year and reassess priorities next year. As the economy continues to improve, the governor hopes to add funding for the LeRay McAlister conservation program in future budgets."
Despite a recent legislative breakthrough, the future of preserving farmland is challenging at best. Utah Agriculture Commissioner Leonard Blackham told the appropriations committee that if development trends along the Wasatch Front continue, by 2030 nearly 200,000 additional acres will be lost.
The task force report noted that 70 years ago Americans grew 44 percent of their own food locally. But since then, Utah has added more than 2 million residents, while losing hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland.
To slow the urban march, the task force is supporting SB46, which passed out of committee Jan. 31. The bill would pay farmers who are willing to sell development rights so their lands can be kept in production, said the bill sponsor, Sen. Scott Jenkins R-Plain City.
The money would come from taxes counties already collect in so-called rollback taxes. When agriculture property is sold for development, the farmer or developer must pay several years of back taxes at the higher residential rate. Money from these rollback taxes, in turn, goes into a county’s general fund.
Blackham and the task force also are pushing funding for the LeRay McAlister Fund, which has preserved 80,000 acres of land, most of it agricultural, recreational and archaeological sites. Over the past 10 years, the state pitched in $20 million, which was matched by $110 million from the federal government and other sources.
In 2000, Black Island Farms was the first project financed by the fund, which paid for development rights on the Syracuse property. Each year the farm — which is surrounded by subdivisions — opens its fields for harvest festivals and student field trips.
Farm owner Charles Black said money from the fund was used to retire debt, "but most importantly, I want my grandchildren to know that this land will be protected forever."
The task force — made up of lawmakers, farmers and developers — also is calling for other farmland protections, including the following:
• Creating greenbelt designations, which would lower taxes on smaller farming operations.
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