HARRISBURG, Pa. — Four Lehigh Valley farms have been preserved as part of a $9.9 million statewide effort to ward off development and protect open spaces.
“Pennsylvania is a great place to do business,” said Russell Redding, secretary of the state Department of Agriculture, in a Monday news release. “Our location near ports, interstates, railways and 40% of the U.S. population means farmers face fierce competition from developers seeking to buy their land.
“Saving fertile farmland for producing food, rather than losing it to warehouses and suburban sprawl is a critical investment the Shapiro Administration is making along with farm families and county and local governments to feed our families, and our economy, and our future together.”Russell Redding, secretary of the state Department of Agriculture
“Saving fertile farmland for producing food, rather than losing it to warehouses and suburban sprawl is a critical investment the Shapiro Administration is making along with farm families and county and local governments to feed our families, and our economy, and our future together.”
The farms, two each in Lehigh and Northampton counties, were the latest to be included in the commonwealth’s Farmland Preservation Program, along with more than two dozen others across the state.
Through the program, farmers sell their development rights to the state’s State Land Preservation Board, protecting the land from any future residential or commercial development.
Farms preserved in Lehigh County include two Lower Milford Township farms — Alan P. and Donna M. Behnke, a 20-acre crop farm, and Matthew J. Urffer and Jessica J. Bales, a 43-acre crop farm.
The total investment was just over $403,000, divided between state, county and township funds, according to the news release.
In Northampton County, farms included 358 Menahan Street, a 56-acre crop farm in Lower Mount Bethel Township; and Charles B., Natalie J. and Zachary B. Rush, a 48-acre crop farm in Moore Township. The total investment was just under $435,000, split between state and county funding.
Thirty farms across the state were preserved in this latest round, totaling 2,654 acres in 14 counties.
Since 1988, when the state’s Farmland Preservation Program was approved by voters, the commonwealth has protected 6,422 farms and 641,908 acres in 58 counties, investing more than $1.7 billion in state, county and local funds.
