From the Wisconsin State Journal, by Jason Stein
As subdivisions and strip malls gobble up Wisconsin's farmland at an increasingly fast pace, the state's top agricultural official is launching an effort to manage the loss.
The erosion of farm and forest lands threatens not only signature state industries like dairy and paper but also other businesses like tourism that use the natural landscape to draw visitors and dollars, said Rod Nilsestuen, secretary of the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
The triangle between Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago is losing farmland - some of the nation's best - at the third- fastest rate in the country, he said.
"That's unacceptable because God isn't making any more land," Nilsestuen said. "This won't be the Wisconsin that we know and need if we . . . don't have a more coherent way of addressing this."
A study last year by UW- Extension found that in 2000, farms and food processors propelled $51.5 billion through the state's economy and provided jobs for 420,000 employees, or about 12 percent of the state's workforce. Farmland may also be the key to a future economy powered by biofuels such as ethanol instead of petroleum- based products like gasoline, Nilsestuen said.
But the amount of farmland in the state has dropped 14 percent over the last 20 years - from 18.2 million to 15.6 million acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prices for the remaining land have risen 173 percent in just eight years, according to the state Department of Revenue, making the land harder to farm profitably and providing another incentive to sell it to developers.
Efforts to prevent the loss of farmland have drawn the ire of developers and even farmers, since selling land for development can create a big retirement cushion for a farmer.
To stem that controversy, Nilsestuen is trying a tactic he's used with other touchy subjects like the siting of big livestock farms - putting together a committee of farmers, environmentalists, developers and academics to reach a consensus about what should be done.
Nilsestuen said the Working Lands Steering Committee of 24 people will look at preserving farmlands through methods like zoning land for farming, buying the development rights from landowners and giving farmers financial credits for the environmental benefits their land and crops provide, such as fighting global warming by taking carbon dioxide out of the air.
"Madison is going to grow," he said. "(Development) isn't the issue. It's how we do it."
The task force will hold public meetings and deliver its final recommendations to Gov. Jim Doyle a year from now.
Driving through the farmlands between Tomah and Madison on Friday, economist David J. Ward said the loss of such lands to homes or businesses may not be a huge economic concern. The nation's farmers keep producing more crops using less land, said Ward, president of NorthStar Economics in Madison.
"I think it's more a quality of life issue than an economic issue," he said in an interview by cell phone, noting there were environmental benefits to preserving farmland.
