Protect farmland

Does it matter if new houses are popping up like mushrooms after a rain in that field across from your house where potatoes grew last year?

We think it does. So does the Mat-Su Borough.

Among the capital account remnants from the Borough’s 2008 fiscal year budget is a $300,000 line item waiting to match grant funds to protect Mat-Su crop land. Directing that money to be used to match grant funds and the possibility of adding more to the pool are potential items for discussion when the Mat-Su Borough Assembly meets Thursday in working toward adoption of its 2009 budget. We urge the Borough to continue committing funds to the preservation of farmlands in the Valley.

Money granted to the Alaska Farmland Trust will be used to help purchase the development rights of land. That would allow landowners a way to glean the full market value of their property while keeping the land in agricultural production. Or, the land could be sold to a farmer for agricultural purposes at a rate reflecting its value as farmland instead of as a parcel to be subdivided for homes.

Here’s basically how it works. If a parcel is worth $8,000 an acre for development and $3,000 an acre as farmland, the owner would receive the $5,000 difference and the property would be restricted to use as farmland for whatever term is established by the trust, effectively forever. The $300,000 in Borough funds would be used for some Valley parcels that can be protected if 50 percent of the buyout cost is raised from nonfederal funds. A USDA program through the Natural Resources Conservation Service covers the other half. The program is entirely voluntary. A 40-acre parcel near Wasilla will likely be the first farm protected.

America is losing 1.2 million acres of farmland annually. There are no good figures for the land lost in Alaska, but anyone who has lived in the Valley for several years can testify to the effect the Borough’s population explosion has had on lands once under cultivation.

We have Borough funds committed to combat the problem. We have federal funds committed. But where are the state funds? While loss of agricultural lands may be most obvious in the Matanuska and Susitna valleys, productive farmlands are being lost around the state where increased population is spilling subdivisions onto farmlands that circled our towns.

While we applaud the Borough’s foresight, we bemoan the apparent lack of it at the state level and urge our legislators to do their homework during the growing season to be ready with some supportive legislation next winter.

We see the long-term benefits of making sure the best Valley farmland stays farmland — forever.

There’s no better way to celebrate our Valley’s agriculture heritage today, on Alaska Agriculture Day, than to promote and protect the industry.