The Centre County Farmland Trust preserves and protects farmland, open land and woodlands.
These lands benefit us all in many ways: cleaner water to drink and air to breathe, along with beautiful scenery and delicious local food.
But there are great pressures — the needs of a growing population, industry and inefficient land practices — resulting in the loss of farmland and open land.
When we can protect land with conservation easements and by supporting efficient land use practices, we all benefit. Read on to learn why losing farmland is a problem and how we are working to help address it.
Farmland Benefits us All
Some of the best, most productive soils in the country are found here in central Pennsylvania. We must be cautious about bulldozing and paving too much of it to support growth and inefficient land use practices.
Farmland benefits the greater good and contributes to our quality of life in central Pennsylvania by providing us all with:
- delicious, local food
- food security
- cleaner air compared to developed land
- cleaner water compared to developed land
- beautiful landscapes and scenery
- rich agricultural heritage and agritourism opportunities
- climate change mitigation through well-managed soils
- climate change mitigation by preventing increased emissions linked to suburban “sprawl.”
Learn more about How Farmland Benefits Us All.
Farmland Under Threat
“It is a farmer-killing and land-killing economy,” writes Wendell Berry in the forward to his 1981 book of agricultural and cultural essays, “The Gift of Good Land.”
Our farmland is slipping away, in Centre County and nationally. As the population grows in Centre County and the Centre Region, driving demand for more buildings and roads, how our community grows greatly influences our farmland, our rural character and quality of life.
Visit Our Farmland Is Slipping Away. to learn more about the problem of farmland loss, including the solutions to combat this problem.
The Centre County Farmland Trust preserves and stewards this precious resource of farmland, open land and woodland. We help protect, celebrate and cherish “The Gift of Good Land” as Berry, agrarian author, poet and environmental activist wisely describes it — so that land can continue to benefit us all.
“What I stand for is what I stand on”
~ Wendell Berry, American poet, author & farmer