The Department of Agriculture announced the investment of $12 million this week to preserve an additional 42 farms and 3,665 acres through its nation-leading farmland preservation program today.

Since the program’s inception in 1988, Pennsylvania has preserved 2,925 farms and 332,020 acres, making it a national leader in preservation efforts.

The latest preserved farms – in Adams, Allegheny, Bedford, Berks, Butler, Chester, Erie, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Perry, Susquehanna, Westmoreland and York counties – consist of crop and livestock farms, dairies and a vineyard.

The Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program was developed 18 years ago to help slow the loss of prime farmland to non-agricultural uses. The program enables state, county and local governments to purchase conservation easements (also called development rights) from owners of quality farmland.

Pennsylvania has 7.7 million acres of farmland, representing 27 percent of the state’s land base. Agriculture is a $45 billion dollar industry and the state’s largest.

8/25/2006