Title: Why Preserve Farmland? : ConservationTools
Headings: Why Preserve Farmland?
Why Preserve Farmland?
Introduction
Farmland Preservation Anchors the Farm Economy
Protects Our National Security
Supports Our Economy
Creates Jobs
Keeps Money in Local Communities
Provides Tax Revenue; Requires Little Government Service
Supports Agritourism
Delivers Ecosystem Goods and Services
Sustains a Tradition
Farmland Preservation Tools

Content: Other farmers in the area watch their options narrow and fear that others will also sell their land for development. They conclude that their farms will inevitably be lost, so they stop investing in new machinery and labor. Eventually, they leave their fields fallow in anticipation of selling for development.[3] The downward spiral of the local farm economy eventually becomes irreversible. Farmland preservation aims to prevent the downward spiral. It aims to secure enough farms as permanent anchors so that people can see that their local farm economy can weather the loss of a number of non-protected farms without capsizing. Farmland preservation provides assurance that farming is there to stay in a community. Protects Our National Security
Twenty percent of the food Americans eat comes from other countries. [ 4] The current system of food production and delivery has created a global supermarket, where all kinds of items are available to consumers year-round. While access to products that cannot be grown in the United States (coffee and bananas, for instance) is welcome, there are pitfalls to undue dependence on global trade networks to deliver many foods that can be grown here. Political upheaval in Asia, drought in South America, economic turmoil in Europe: