ALBANY COUNTY – Municipalities will now be able to seek grant money from the state for farmland protection planning.

New York’s Farmland Protection Program was implemented in 1996 and, until last Thursday’s announcement, grants were available only to counties. With the new provision, cities, towns, and villages are eligible for up to $25,000 or 75 percent of the cost associated with developing a farmland protection plan.

In the 2007-08 state budget, $28 million was appropriated for the program.

The announcement of the program’s extension to include municipalities was made last week by Commissioner Patrick Hooker of the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets, at Indian Ladder Farms in New Scotland.

The announcement came in the midst of Farm Aid 2007 — the Upstate-Downstate Food and Farm Caravan, which visited 14 farms across the state.

At each farm, the caravan gathered farm-fresh produce to feed artists and crew participating in a concert that took place at Randall’s Island in New York City. The purpose was to raise consciousness about good food grown locally.

The Farmland Protection Program is to help farmers protect their land, said Jessica Chittenden, a spokesperson with Hooker’s office.

Twenty-five percent of the land in New York State is farmland, said Chittenden. Agriculture is an important part of the state’s economy; it generates about $3 billion a year, she said.
That $3 billion tends to stay within local economies, Chittenden said. "Farmers generally do shopping locally," she said.
"Agriculture is very important to the well-being of many upstate New York communities," Chittenden said.
The development pressure facing farmers is increasing, she explained. Developers see the open space as an opportunity, she said. "That land is actually worth more to the developer than to the farmer," said Chittenden.

The idea is to help provide funding to enable farmers to sell the development rights on their land to the local municipality, she said.

When development rights on a parcel of land are sold, there are no stipulations regarding what, specifically, the land must be used for, as long as it fits under the broad umbrella of agricultural use, Chittenden said.
"A dairy farm now could change to an apple orchard in 50 years," she said. "The bottom line is that it will always stay open," she said.
"Open space is part of what makes upstate New York upstate New York," Chittenden said.
"Family decision"
The program is voluntary. "It’s only for interested farmers," Chittenden said. "It’s a family decision."

The most important thing for farmers to consider, Chittenden said, is what they ultimately want to do with the land.

Farmers also need to contemplate factors such as whether or not they have a succession plan for the future of the farm, if the farm is actually viable, and whether the ground is fertile, said Chittenden.
"We look at a wide range of things before we decide," Chittenden said.

The program really has two parts, she said.
The first part is for planning grants for towns and municipalities "to put together a plan for the community as to where they wish to protect farmland," said Chittenden. The town needs to work with its farmers, she said, "to figure out what will work best for the town."

The second part, she said, is implementation plans. Once the town has established a plan for where it would like to have protected farmland, it can approach farmers in that area and ask if they might be interested in selling the development rights to their land, Chittenden explained.

The town would again work together with the farmer, she said.

If the farmer decides to sell his development rights, the state would pay 75 percent and the other 25 percent is the farmer’s responsibility, but the municipality, for example, can pitch in, said Chittenden.

The price of the development rights is the difference between what the land is worth as agricultural land and what it is worth if developed, said Chittenden.
"All the money goes back to the farmer," Chittenden said. "It’s their pot of money to invest back into the business," she said, adding that it is really up to the farmer as to how to spend the money.

Local perspective

There are more than 400 farms in Albany County, and 160 of them are listed in Westerlo, said Leonard Laub, the chairperson of Westerlo’s planning board.
"We are agricultural here," said Laub. Agriculture is the economic, cultural, and aesthetic base for the town, and is the "keystone" of the comprehensive plan that Westerlo will be developing, Laub said.
"It’s our number-one priority," he said.

A goat farmer in Westerlo is setting up an operation to make cheese, Laub said, citing the importance of innovative ideas in farming.
"We have to help people learn how to do these sorts of things and support them," said Laub.
He doesn’t know of anyone in town who is considering selling development rights to their land, but, he said, "It’s something that is coming on the radar."
It is an option that the town will make its farmers aware of "so they don’t have the feeling it’s farm actively, pay taxes on inactive land, or sell to a developer," Laub said.
"Maintaining agriculture as something that is sustainable is a top priority for the town of Westerlo," Laub concluded.

In the neighboring Helderberg town of Rensselaerville, agriculture does not drive the economy as it does in Westerlo.

There is one active dairy farm in town, and several other small specialty-market operations, said Thomas Mikulka, who chairs the town’s land-use and planning committee.
"When we talk about agriculture in this town, we’re really talking about harvesting hay. That is the significant agriculture in town," said Mikulka.

The real argument is preserving open space, he said.
"We have open land and could possibly use it for agriculture in the future," said Mikulka. The town has applied for a grant to study preserving its farmland.

Peter Ten Eyck, and his daughter, Laurie Ten Eyck, operate Indian Ladder Farms in New Scotland. The business has been in the family for over 100 years.

Their farm was the first in Albany County to sell its development rights.
The decision to do so, said Peter Ten Eyck, was "at the initiative of my daughter, Laurie."
Part of their discussion, he said, had to do with the unique location of Indian Ladder Farms. "My grandfather made a great choice in choosing this location at the base of the Helderbergs," Ten Eyck said.

In preserving the character of the Helderbergs, it is important to keep in mind the view from the top of the mountain, Ten Eyck said. People don’t want to see endless rooftops from the overlook, he said.
"I strongly believe we have to preserve prime agricultural land so that we’ll always have places to grow our own food if we have to," Ten Eyck told The Enterprise. It is important "so that people can continue to farm" and land will continue to be available for agriculture in the future," Ten Eyck said.