Estimating Amenity Values: Will It Improve Farmland Preservation Policy?

There is a growing awareness that farmland provides a host of nonmarket services, or amenities. Amenities are external benefits of farmland, i.e., beyond commodity production revenues, accruing to all types of residents (or “amenity consumers”) in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Farmland amenities may include aesthetically pleasing views, habitat provision, groundwater recharge, and a lack of development (Irwin, Nickerson and Libby 2003). Although not necessarily amenities, farmland also provides closely related environmental benefits such as flood control and carbon sequestration (Legg 2007). The term “multifunctionality” reflects all of these services from active farmland: commodities, amenities, and other environmental services.