Land Trust, CADE Win Grant to Protect Farmland in Otsego County

COOPERSTOWN—Otsego Land Trust has been awarded just under $50,000.00 through Round 5 of the Land Trust Grants program from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. OLT applied for the funding in partnership with the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship, to inventory farmland throughout Otsego County and support outreach activities for farmland protection.

According to Gregory Farmer, OLT executive director, “The NYSDAM grant will help protect high-quality agricultural land in Otsego County, using mapping, analysis, and coordinated outreach to farmers, landowners, and next-generation farmers to keep the land in production. The project will build a stronger relationship with Otsego County’s farming community and work toward keeping a higher percentage of farmland in agricultural use.”

“Farming is a key economic driver in Otsego County and has the additional benefit of feeding our local communities and preserving the rural landscapes for which our region is famous,” said CADE Executive Director Phoebe Schreiner. “CADE looks forward to working with Otsego Land Trust and landowners to transition agricultural land to the next generation of farmers, so that Otsego County can continue to produce food, and farmers can continue to steward our land, water, and other natural resources and create ‘green’ jobs. We are also committed to matching beginning farmers with affordable farmland for those historically marginalized from food production,” she said.

Farms in Otsego County account for 154,634 acres (24 percent of the land area) and produce more than $56 million in annual market value, according to a release issued by OLT. Agriculture is central to the county’s character, economy, and food supply, but Otsego County is losing farmland at an alarming rate, officials said. Labor shortages, rising costs and changing markets are the primary factors that have made agriculture less viable. Otsego County lost 14 percent of the farmland in five years (2012-2017), reflecting a steady decline since the 1980s. With almost a third of farmers (28 percent) over the age of 65, the land that has been farmed for generations is at risk of being sold or converted to non-agricultural use.

Real estate developers actively seek out underutilized farmland, already cleared and well-drained, for low-density residential development, renewable energy installations, and commercial distribution centers. According to the press release, more than 700 new single-family residential building permits have been issued in Otsego County in the past five years, despite population declines of 4-20 percent in every one of the county’s 24 towns. Many of the new homes are on large lots that were formerly farmland. The result is that farmland is permanently removed from production and priced too high for next-generation farmers to afford. (US Department of Agriculture 2017 Census)

Both Farmer and Schreiner contend that the risk of losing farmland is great. New or beginning farmers and farmers looking to expand operations often cannot afford to purchase farmland. Linking current landowners with a new generation of farmers will keep agricultural land in production and protect it from development. Encouraging minority farmers and improving access to farmland will help diversify the agricultural community in Otsego County. The overall opportunity, officials said, lies in connecting these new generation farmers with current farmers and landowners.