BOISE, Idaho — If you’ve lived in Idaho for any length of time, you’ve probably said it. You’re driving by a subdivision or other development, you look out and tell your passenger, “I remember when all that was fields.” But that cute little phrase demonstrates a major loss of agricultural land in Idaho. And a nonprofit organization wants to do something about it.
As Idaho keeps growing and developers keep building, it's important to remember what they're building on.
"Over the past 20 years, Idaho's lost literally tens of thousands of our productive agricultural land." That’s according to Roger Batt, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Agriculture's Future. They're a nonprofit made up of a lot of different agricultural organizations and companies. They want more people to understand how important agriculture is to the state, and how much losing agricultural land can harm us all.
Batt estimates more than 50,000 acres of farm and ranch land was paved over between 2001 and 2020 in Idaho, with a lot of that happening between Meridian and Nampa. That's out of, roughly, more than 11 million acres of total agricultural land in the state. That’s a fraction of that, but Batt says, "Agriculture is an $8 billion industry in our economy. Our farmland is critical to our future and our food supply. And every acre that's removed from that is a hit to our economy."
Batt also points out that this affects more than just farmers and ranchers, "The loss of farmland impacts everyone. It impacts our food security. It impacts our economy, our environment, and the culture of landowner communities, as well. I think we need to ask ourselves, 'Are we more comfortable with the food on our dinner plates coming from Idaho agricultural producers? Or are we actually more comfortable getting our food from places where we don't know where it's produced, or how it’s produced?'"
You might have heard some of this before, which is exactly why Batt believes, "It's time to stop talking about the issue and time to actually get something done on it."
That “something” is potential state legislation. Batt says they've been working on it for more than a year and are almost ready to introduce it. Again, it's still being written, but the bill would try to convince landowners to keep their fields as fields, instead of allowing them to be developed into subdivisions or strip malls.
"Essentially what it does is establishes a program in Idaho,” explains Batt. “It's a voluntary program where landowners can get into the program and receive incentives for tying up that land over a 20-year period of time."
He says a lot of lawmakers are already on board, because their constituents are worried just like they are, "We don't blame people for wanting to move to Idaho. It's a great place. I'm a fifth generation Idaho myself and again, I don't blame people for moving here. But people are concerned about the future of our food supply and what that's going to look like."
If you want to support this effort, Batt says you can get in touch with your legislator. Again, it's not a bill, yet. But should be introduced soon. Also, you can always buy Idaho and support your local agriculture that way.
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