The Tompkins County Planning Department is undertaking a planning effort called the Vital Communities Initiative.  Integral to this effort are the seven Draft Development and Preservation Principles, which are intended to help develop a shared vision of future growth and development in Tompkins County and to assist County and local governments and private and non-profit entities in their future planning efforts.  In presentations to over 35 municipal and civic boards, groups, and organizations, staff have received and incorporated extensive comments on these Principles.  If you would like to discuss this Initiative in greater detail or comment on the Principles, please attend the upcoming Vital Communities public meeting to be held on Thursday, April 11th at 7pm in the Beverly Livesay Conference Room (in the Tompkins County Human Services Building, 320 West State Street).  Or contact the Tompkins County Planning Department by regular mail (121 E. Court St., Ithaca, NY), telephone [(607) 274-5560], email (E-mail us) or the Internet (www.tompkins-co.org/planning/vci/).

This column addresses Principle 5, “Promote agriculture, protect farmland, and protect the rural economy,” and is written by Monika Roth, a Vital Communities Initiative Steering Committee member and Agriculture Program Leader for Cooperative Extension Educator of Tompkins County.  

One of the many challenges agriculture faces is to be visible in our community.  The economic activity generated from farms and agri-business in Tompkins County is equal to the economic activity generated by all the businesses in Cornell’s Research and Technology Park (located next to the County Airport).  Yet because agriculture is dispersed in the rural landscape, its economic value is often underestimated.  Agriculture in Tompkins County contributes approximately $50 million annually in product sales, most of which flows into Tompkins County from outside sources.   Agriculture is also important to the rural character of Tompkins County.  For example, the county’s farmers own and operate about one third of the county’s land area.  Since only about half of the land they farm is harvested cropland, farmers contribute about 50,000 acres of open space to the county. Open space, natural areas, forests and farms are assets that contribute to the county’s scenic beauty and quality of life.   

Finally, agriculture is important in Tompkins County because having a local food supply is increasingly important to consumers for food safety and security reasons.   Smaller units of production create less opportunity for large outbreaks of food-borne illness.  Preserving the ability to grow our own food by protecting the best soils and through supportive local land use policies helps ensure a secure food supply.  

The future of agriculture and the ability to retain a viable agriculture sector in Tompkins County are primarily impacted by the ability of farmers to make a profit.  This is influenced in large part by supply and price, over which we have limited influence other than purchasing directly from farmers so they receive full value for their products.  We can, however, influence agriculture’s viability in our community through favorable policies that promote agriculture, protect farmland and enhance the rural economy.  This is the topic of Principle 5 in the County’s Vital Communities Initiative. 

During the Vital Communities workshops held in late 1999 and early 2000, protecting the best soils and maintaining viable agriculture were mentioned by almost all workshop participants as being critical to maintaining the rural character residents cherish.  They recognized that agriculture contributes to the County’s economic, land use and environmental and food security. A means of achieving this is to direct development and infrastructure to existing developed areas to avoid the loss of valuable soils and to minimize the impact of development on farmers’ ability to continue farming.  

One of the next steps in the Vital Communities Initiative is to develop a toolbox that County and local governments can use in planning their preferred futures.  One tool to stabilize the loss of farmland is a purchase of development rights program.  The challenges in implementing this program are to: (1) make it attractive to farmers when land for development is relatively low priced, (2) provide sufficient benefit to the farmers to encourage investment in their future farming operations by selling the development rights to their farms and (3) determine the appropriate framework for program implementation.

The renewal of New York agriculture is a theme found in the State’s Quality Communities report.  The State has an overriding interest in agriculture’s future as evidenced by provisions of the Agricultural District law which protects farms from local laws that unreasonably restrict farming and by the investment the State has made in purchasing development rights on farms.   

A challenge for Tompkins County is to plan a future that enables farms to exist as a valued part of the landscape and a viable part of our economy.  This will only happen if there is agreement that agriculture is vital to Tompkins County’s future and if development and planning activities minimize unintended impacts on agriculture.  Effective tools are needed to protect the best soils, to promote our farming businesses and to maintain a local food supply.