Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the 2013-14 
State Budget yesterday at the University at Buffalo. The budget passed both houses of the New York State Legislature on March 29.
The budget provides $13 million, an increase of $1 million, for the state’s Farmland Protection Program, which funds the purchase of agricultural conservation easements on farmland and the development of municipal and county agriculture and farmland protection plans. The Farmland Protection Program is part of the Environmental Protection Fund, which received $153 million, an increase of $19 million.
New York’s 30,000 farms sell almost $5 billion in farm products annually and are the critical link in a chain of food processors and agriculturally related businesses that annually generate $46.7 billion in economic impact. “Farmland forms the foundation of New York’s farm and food economy yet over the last 25 years the state has lost half a million acres of farmland to real estate development,” said David Haight, New York State Director for American Farmland Trust. The Environmental Protection Fund is currently the sole source of funding for the state’s Farmland Protection Program, which provides funding to protect farms from poorly planned development. The Farmland Protection Program also enables farmers to invest funds they receive in exchange for placing a conservation easement on their farm in diversifying and expanding their farm businesses. Many of these farmers build new infrastructure, introduce new crops, purchase equipment or livestock, and perhaps most importantly, transfer family farms to the next generation of farmers.” Read More »
now protected from development thanks to combined support from the federal Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program, Scenic Hudson, Dutchess County, the Town of Red Hook, the Columbia Land Conservancy and the Dutchess Land Conservancy. 1,265 acres of farmland have been protected with conservation easements at a cost $5 million. The farms produce fruits, vegetables, milk, hay and grains. “Ensuring that our farmers have access to the land they need to grow their products is vitally important to economic development and food security in New York,” said U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. 
