By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
Georgia citizens like to see fertile farmland and crops near
urban areas and are willing to pay to preserve them, according
to a University of Georgia survey.
“The loss of farmland to urban and related development is an
issue of considerable interest in Georgia, especially in rapidly
urbanizing counties,” says John Bergstrom, an economist with the
UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Bergstrom is collecting and analyzing Georgia data from a survey
that asked citizens what farmland they value and how much they’d
pay to help preserve it through the purchase of agricultural
conservation (or PACE) programs. The survey was funded by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Similar surveys were conducted
in Ohio and Maine.
PACE
PACE programs are used to secure farm conservation easements.
These easements are agreements between landowners and government
agencies or private land trusts to place legal restrictions on
the development of agricultural land in return for money to the
landowner.
Most Georgians in the survey believe the protection of farmland
is consistent and compatible to environmental protection and
that the family farm should be preserved in Georgia. But they
prefer to protect farmland near urban areas. And they want that
farmland to look fertile and be used to grow livestock and crops
for human consumption.
Protection money
And they’d be willing to pay a one-time tax, possibly as a
checkoff on state tax returns, to protect this land. According
to the survey, Georgians would be willing to contribute $62 per
household to preserve 100,000 acres or $81 to preserve as much
as 2 million acres.
Most survey participants also believe farmers aren’t wealthy.
The survey was mailed to 1,000 randomly selected households in
Georgia. The response rate was just over 25 percent. Bergstrom
said this was a lower response rate than he had anticipated, but
high enough to justify the findings.
PACE programs can be financed by public and private money. But
funds, he said, can be limited. He said this survey can help
those administering such programs gauge what farmland citizens
want to preserve.
Bergstrom is completing a paper about the survey.
In 2003, Georgia had about 10.8 million acres of farmland and
about 49,000 farms, according to the Georgia Agricultural
Statistics Service. In 1954, Georgia had about 24 million acres
of farmland and about 165,000 farms.
How much a landowner is given per acre to preserve land varies,
Bergstrom said. But last month the Athens Land Trust, a private
organization, secured $500,000 to buy a conservation easement
for 63 acres of farmland in Oconee County, Ga. The funds came
from the USDA and the Georgia Greenspace Program. This was the
first time Greenspace funds were used to buy such an easement in
Georgia.
