The Purchase of Development Rights, Agricultural Preservation and Other Land Use Policy Tools: the Pennsylvania Experience

The protection of farmland from development is emerging as a major policy initiative in several states and dozens of counties and municipalities. From a national perspective, the loss of farmland-estimated at about one million acres a year-does not appear to be a threat to America's food supply or food prices. However, from a local and regional perspective, farmland loss to suburban and ex-urban development can have a major negative impact on the local agricultural industry, drive up the cost of public services, and clutter the appearance of the countryside.