Conversion of Prime
Agriculture Land

STATUS: Nationally, 3 million acres are converted each year.

POLICY: Our finite resources, coupled with growing populations, make it
imperative to reverse this trend.

IMPLEMENTATION: While not a major problem on our District, we will
discourage any development within the District that would remove good
agriculture land from production. This may be accomplished through review
of proposals submitted through the county and city planning and zoning
commissions and, when possible, the District will provide input into county
and city master plans. Local and state governments are encouraged to ease tax
burdens and offer tax incentives to agriculture producers where appropriate.
Education to the effects of such losses will be included in the environmental
education program. The development of agriculture land use will be encouraged
and the judicious and continued use of productive agriculture land will be
promoted. The District has already submitted a position statement on this
issue to the National Agriculture Lands Study.