As with the state’s overall economic recovery, this past fiscal year has shown brighter signs for efforts to protect farmland from development in New York. In Fiscal Year 2011-2012, the state worked with farmers, communities and private land trusts to close on 19 farmland protection projects, paying out more than $13 million, with an additional $2 million approved for disbursement this month. “We are encouraged that New York is investing in our farmers and protecting the land that we need for farming and growing food,” said David Haight, New York State Director for American Farmland Trust.
