Fifty Years of Farmland Protection Legislation in the Northeast: Persistent Issues and Emergent Research Opportunities

Abstract

Over the past fifty years, several different types of publicly sponsored programs have been devised by state and local governments for the express purpose of encouraging owners to maintain land in an agricultural use. Although these units of government can, and do, wield considerable police power or regulatory influence, most attention has been given to voluntary, incentive-based approaches. First-generation programs were developed beginning in the mid-1950s, with state legislation centered on the provision of direct cash benefits via reduced property tax levies on farm real estate (Tremblay et al. 1987).