Editorial: Farmland's golden fields

What would life in North Carolina be like with 3 million more people living here — traveling the roads, building homes and needing all the services that local and state government normally provide?

That kind of growth may seem like a fantasy during the current jobless recovery. But experts predict the state's population will grow by 3 million in the next 20 years, after gaining 1 million since 2000. In the midst of that growth, N.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler says, North Carolina must ensure that its farmers have the space and means to continue producing food for the region and world.

How? One way is through farmland preservation.

Troxler and Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco were keynote speakers Tuesday at a regional symposium in Statesville that focused on agriculture, farmland preservation and "Protecting Our Food Supply Against an Uncertain Future." Organized by the LandTrust for Central North Carolina and the Foothills Conservancy, the session focussed on agriculture's role as a $70 billion economic engine — one that is often taken for granted.

Troxler said every time a new family moves in, two acres of land are impacted for their home, infrastructure and other government services. And for each dollar such a family pays in taxes, government is providing $1.50 in services. Meanwhile, for each dollar a working farm pays in taxes, it requires only 35 cents worth of services. There's a case to be made that farming is subsidizing growth, Troxler said.

Yet, because North Carolina has never had to worry about farmland before, some leaders have a hard time grasping the importance of preserving it now, Troxler said. Guilford County commissioners, for example, refused to buy conservation easements on a large farm in an important area even though bonds had been approved to save open spaces. "We don't want to invest in property that our citizens can't walk on," Troxler quoted them as saying. They saw easements only as a way for a farmer to get rich. But Troxler said such a cash infusion can help a farmer stay in business and bring a new generation into agriculture. "If he wants to be rich, all he has to do is sell."

Crisco, the Commerce secretary, said North Carolina has been the 10th most populous state in the nation, and would move to ninth or eighth soon.

"The implications of what we have to do — from an employment standpoint, a conservancy standpoint ... — are enormous," he said.

The food business is important to North Carolina, he said. Preserving farmland helps save agribusiness. "That's why people move to North Carolina, for the small town life," he said. "We can't kill the goose that laid the golden egg."