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Farming and a healthy farm economy play a critical role in local communities, in the social fabric of the region, and in the water quality of our rivers, streams, and the Chesapeake Bay. But the future of farming across the Chesapeake Bay watershed is precarious. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's (CBF) report Vital Signs: The State of Chesapeake Agriculture in 2005 highlights the problems facing the agriculture community today, and explains how we are losing farms to sprawling suburban development, diminishing profits, and a scarcity of new, young farmers in part to increases in the cost of fuel and other operational expenses, sky-rocketing real estate values and a steep decrease in the share of consumer food dollars received by farmers. CBF has long argued that responsibly managed farmland is a preferred land use for the Bay watershed.
CBF continues to advocate for conservation programs and for technical and financial assistance to farmers to establish riparian buffers, cover crops, rotational grazing, and other conservation practices to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution to our rivers and streams. These types of agricultural practices are the most cost-effective way to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution to the Bay. In fact, scientists estimate that we could achieve almost two-thirds of the nitrogen and phosphorus reductions necessary to restore the Chesapeake Bay, at only 13% of the total cost of Bay restoration, by implementing these types of agricultural practices.
CBF also advocates for farmland preservation. Across the region, farmland and open space are being lost at an alarming rate. To provide information to enable both farmers and citizens to take action to slow the loss of farmland, CBF released A Guide to Preserving Agricultural Lands in the Chesapeake Bay Region, which takes a comprehensive look at farmland preservation in the Chesapeake Bay region. CBF recently applied some of these principles on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where a mega-development was proposed on prime farmland near the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.
Watershed-wide, farmers are willing to adopt these conservation and preservation measures. But they can’t do it alone. Unfortunately, federal and state government investments in conservation practices to help farmers reduce pollution and remain profitable have been inadequate.
In 2005, CBF's Board of Trustees launched an agriculture initiative focused on maintaining a viable farming economy in the Bay watershed and achieving the pollution reductions necessary to restore the Chesapeake Bay. We are:
- Lobbying at the state (read about our work in Maryland) and federal levels for increased funding for agricultural programs that reward farmers for implementing best management practices that will reduce run-off from agricultural lands.
- Partnering with farmers to implement innovative conservation practices, such as precision-feeding for dairy cows and variable rate nutrient application that have the potential to improve water quality while increasing the farmers’ profit marginsand. Read about our work with farmers in Pennsylvania.
- Investigating tax incentives, such as REAP in Pennsylvania, that will help farmers maintain their farms in the face of sky-rocketing real estate values.
CBF believes in practicing what we preach using our own farm — Clagett Farm, in Upper Marlboro, Maryland — to showcase best management practices to students, educators, and other farmers. The future of agriculture in this region and the future of the Chesapeake Bay are inextricably linked. We cannot afford to continue to lose farms in the watershed. |
