Maria Bentzoni, Tsarina of farmland preservation in Northampton County, updated County Council on her program yesterday. She's been the thumb in the dike preventing a raging flood of warehouses (and truck traffic) in what was once a rural community. Since 1989, she's been the driving force behind the preservation of 18,820 acres on 244 farms, including 20 farms in 2022.
This is accomplished by the purchase of a farmer's future development rights in what is known as an agricultural conservation easement. This is a very restrictive agreement that runs with the land, not the owner. It prevents the farmland from ever being developed. Statewide, 540,000 acres of farmland have been preserved this way. The money to purchase these easements comes from the state, county and 10 municipalities who contribute valuable earned income tax dollars through referenda approved by the voters.
Northampton County pays about $4,300 for each acre preserved. This pales in comparison to what a developer is willing to spend, so the farmers who apply for this program are making a major sacrifice to preserve a way of life that is quickly being erased. According to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, 79% of Northampton County was undeveloped and farmland in 1972. Now, it's just 47%.
In her presentation to County Council, Bentzoni laid out several benefits to farmland preservation, aside from slowing the pace of warehouse proliferation.
First, it preserves the industry of farming in a state where one in every seven jobs depends on agriculture. Bentzoni stated that the Lehigh Valley's soil quality is the best in the nation, although she conceded that some farming practices like failure to grow cover crops does tend to degrade things.
Second, farmland preservation is a way to preserve our heritage and history.
Third, it helps migratory birds along the largest northern flyway in the U.S.
Council member John Goffredo lauded Bentzoni on her work, but asked about what efforts are being made to preserve the farmer. She answered that there are numerous other agencies involved in trying to stem the tide of people who have given up on farming as a way of life. She noted that earlier in the week, she participated in a summit of 31 farmers who were provided with tips and access to grants on improving soil quality.
Council member John Cusick asked Bentzoni about the dwindling number of dairy farms. She said they are struggling because their operating costs are higher than market conditions permit.
Bentzoni's goal is to preserve another 31,000 acres. I hope she can stay on board for another 40 years.
13 comments:
The soil health workshop was excellent, and it featured a tour of fields where NorCo did a test program of aerial seeding of cover crops. The Farmland Preservation office under Benzoni and Ryan Shaw is widening its program.
Maria is a treasure
Save the farmer? Jaindle gets millions in federal welfare each year from programs that go back to the dust bowl. Programs never die. They just bleed taxpayers forever. Small farmers should take this up with their new representatives, who will laugh at them.
Would be nice if the Farmland Preservation group took a stand on eliminating the use of Biosolids, known to carry pollutants that fly under the radar of the EPA. By dumping these pollutants on preserved farmland, municipalities like Nazareth Borough, harm the welfare of land and its neighbors.
When a municipality (Nazareth) can purchase preserved farmland outside its borough limits (Plainfield Township) with the sole expressed intention of spreading their human fecal waste, rather than landfill it, is it really operating as a farm or is it operating as a landfill?
I guess the answer depends on whether it is your poop or not.
No County Department--Farmland Preservation, Conservation District or other--has any legal jurisdiction over the use of biosolids.
If our tax dollars are being used to put deed restrictions on property for farmland preservation, then let's stand up to municipal authorities who are taking advantage of the program to buy cheap property to spread their pollutants.
Farmland Preservation has a voice and it should use it before the public asks why we are spending our tax dollars to fund biosolid dumps in our backyards.
Everyone poops, we’re all contributors
Again, Farmland Preservation has no legal standing or voice in the use of biosolids. PA DEP does, however.
We can spread pig shit, cow shit, chicken shit, turkey shit, sheep shit, goat shit and McClures bullshit but we can't spread human shit on the property. What's wrong with this picture?
Here is what is wrong with shit on fields. Morning Call article Monday November 21, 2022. "Governments need to deliver washing machine filters." Article discusses microplastics from synthetic fibers are found in human wastewater sludge that is the biosolids spread onto farmer's fields. Microplastics contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals. So concentrated human shit might not be a good idea to put on fields for crops that we eventually eat.
2:32. Not really a good comparison. While farm animals eat grains fortified with GMO, their excrement is pretty clean and usually piled up on its own, and spread on farmland.
Humans, well, we are pumped up with pharmaceuticals, some with illegal drugs, chemicals in our foods and so on. We flush it down our drains which also collect other residential, commercial and some industrial wastes. Then we sometimes take in water runoff from our storm drains. We collect them all together and treat them together.
Studies have shown, and those outside the Shit-Spreading industry are raising the flag, that the remaining "Bio-Solids" contain many un-regulated contaminants that can and have disrupted our eco-system (see Maine ban on biosolids among others).
The fact Nazareth has gone outside its community to dump its shit in a neighbors backyard is unethical and immoral. The project and some of the defenders of it, as well as those looking the other way are telling the neighbors of this sludge dump (including a community park) that Nazareth shit is good enough for Plainfield, but not good enough for any of the thousands of acres of Nazareth area farms.
9:37 I believe you have a fairly limited grasp on animal agriculture, pathogens, GMOs, combined sewer systems, political boundaries, municipal water supplies, sewage treatment and reality. Ignorance speaks first and speaks loudest. You come across as a good ol' fashion NIMBY. I guess you either have a compost toilet or never pump your septic tank. If you're connected to a municipal collection system, maybe you should be mindful of what you flush.
I think you would be amazed at how many regulated contaminants you unwittingly surround yourself with every day.
Today I learned that Nazareth has some pretty smart, but heartless shits. While Plainfield has dumb shits who are taking shit from the smart shits in Nazareth. This blog is good is good shit.
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