The California Farmland Conservancy program provides state funding for local land preservation groups to buy agricultural easements. Easements provide monetary compensation for farmers to keep the land deed from non-agricultural development. Future projections indicate that 79,000 acres will be used for non-agricultural purposes such as urban development. Representatives at the conference addressed the concerns of California farmers, some of whom are feeling the pinch of increasing urbanization while facing a range of factors working against their interests. These farmers face slow commodity and international competition.
Costs are high, and they can barely try to get away with a profit margin.
Flynn noted that it is difficult to keep prices low in a free market via legislation. The most lawmakers can do is reduce or eliminate the sales tax on farm equipment purchases, Flynn said. The reality of easements is that development value for farmland is much greater than agricultural value. Other suggestions presented at the meeting focused more on the issue of easement money, as some participants said that the state should move more quickly in its granting of easements. At the conference, Wiggins also discussed Assembly Bill 52, which would help promote further farmland protection.