Editor’s note: This is the third in “Keep the Farm in Farm Coast,” a series of articles on the changing face of agriculture in the Southcoast and Sakonnet areas. For more, see farmcoast.info.

Hathaway, Sweet and Salty, Walt’s, Ferolbink, Whimshaw, John Hunt, Middle Acres, Treaty Rock, Sakonnet Vineyard, Berry Hill, White Rock, Movement Ground, Arrowhead.

Besides what may be obvious — all of these are local farms with names most who pick up the paper would recognize — this group has something slightly more subtle in common; they’re not just farms, they’re forever farms.

As a “forever farm,” the land they inhabit will be conserved in perpetuity by their respective states and municipalities.

In Rhode Island, it is the Agricultural Land Preservation Commission (ALPC) that leads the charge, birthing the Farmland Preservation Program in 1985 to ensure that farming remains viable within the state. To do so, it purchases a farm’s development rights and safeguards them, assuring that the land remains protected for agricultural use while the farmer retains ownership of the land. The program deems itself as a “financially competitive alternative” to development.

In Massachusetts, the Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR)’s Agricultural Preservation Restriction Program parallels the ALPC’s initiative but is slightly different in methodology. In offering to pay farmland owners the difference between the “fair market value” and the “agricultural value” of their farms in exchange for a permanent deed restriction, the program prevents the development or non-agricultural use of what the MDAR considers invaluable farmland.

Arrowhead Farm, bordering Tiverton’s Nonquit Pond, was conserved last summer after an arduous 12-month process. Its neighbor, Movement Ground Farm, was conserved just six months earlier. Walt’s Farm in Westport eight months before that. White Rock Farm, sprawled across Little Compton’s West Main Road, was conserved all the way back in 2012, and the ink dried on the Westport Land Conservation Trust’s Berry Hill Farm resale just months ago.

In fact, the number of forever farms around the Southcoast and Sakonnet areas is more than just a few — preservation easements amount to a sturdy handful just about every year.

Despite their relative prevalence, though, the total number of forever farms in Tiverton and Little Compton, 17, does not satisfy Kate Sayles. In Westport, with dozens saved via the WLCT, the story is the same. With the ever-exorbitant cost of land, a nationwide shortage of labor, and a record-breaking rate of urban development, the race to keep agricultural land intact daunts farmers and conservationists everywhere. But perhaps it should daunt those who don’t own farmland, too.

First comes land. . .

Kate Sayles is the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Land Trust Council (RILTC). Since taking on the role in 2021, she and her fellow councillors have accrued a long list of statewide achievements including advocating for legislation that supports local land trusts and prompting the development of educational training for municipalities whose plans include a proclivity for agriculture and land conservation. As a state leader, she believes that one of her most crucial responsibilities is to keep an open line of communication between her council and each of Rhode Island’s local boards, including the Little Compton Agricultural Conservancy Trust (LCACT) and the Tiverton Land Trust.

At last week’s LCACT meeting, she exemplified that belief.

“One of our jobs at the Rhode Island land Trust Council is to provide technical assistance and community engagement to land trusts,” she stated before discussing financial hurdles. “To put it frankly, we need more money [to accomplish those jobs]. We sit at the table with Diane [Lynch], the ALPC, and the DEM to make sure we get funded.”

Diane Lynch is a member of the ALPC — with combined lobbying efforts from the ALPC and RILTC, $2.5 million in state funding was granted for the future of land conservation this year. Though not earmarked for anything specific yet, said Lynch, this money will contribute to conserving more forever farms.

The funding was a miracle for both organizations — especially since funding for agricultural conservation is typically sourced from green bonds — but both women know the fight is nowhere near over.

In Massachusetts, the Community Preservation Act passed in 2000 marked a pivot in land and historic preservation — one that Sayles hopes Rhode Island can emulate in the near future. The Act allows towns in Massachusetts to adopt a 0.5 to 3 percent surcharge on property tax that, when combined with matched funds from the state’s Community Preservation Trust Fund, can be leveraged to support the protection of open space, the preservation of historic and agricultural land, and affordable housing. Westport voted the Community Preservation Act into law at 2002’s Town Meeting. Sayles believes that a similar act may be in the works for the Ocean State, too.

“We are really in the early stages,” she said, before noting attempts to pass the law this upcoming year. “But we are working on getting sponsors.”

Then comes food. . .

Diane Lynch may just be Rhode Island Food Policy Council’s greatest weapon. As the Council’s president in her third year, her simultaneous service as a commissioner on the ALPC positions the Council conveniently in the fight for more forever farms.

The Food Policy Council, which started as a nonprofit in 2011, seeks to advocate for a more equitable, accessible, economically conscience food system in the state by advocating across sectors of farming, fishing, food action, and diversion of food waste. Its mission is to bolster the local food market while support community health and sustainability, and Lynch believes it to be a good asset for land conservation due to their advocacy at the State House.

Food starts at the farm, she said at last week’s LCACT meeting. In order to strengthen the local food economy, local farming must also be addressed. As the state with the most expensive farm real estate in the country — $15,484 an acre — that starts with the fight for land.

According to the US Department of Agriculture Census, New England had about six million acres dedicated to farmland in 1945. After nearly an 80 percent loss to development, Rhode Island’s acreage currently stands at about 57,000. The Bay State fared even worse — after enduring a loss of over 90 percent of its farmland, Massachusetts hosts only 491,653 acres. The American Farmland Trust estimates that if things stay the same, Rhode Island will lose a 14 percent of its acreage by 2040. In the same study, Massachusetts is projected to lose 15 percent.

In concert with advocacy efforts pioneered by Lynch, Sayles, and their respective task forces, the Southcoast is, however, taking some steps in the right direction. With a strategy jumpstarted in 2016 by former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo named Relish Rhody, evaluation of the state’s food system began with hiring a Director of Food Strategy — the first in the nation. With this state-of-the-art personnel and vast interagency connections, Relish Rhody took advantage of individuals from all sectors of business, government, and community and their drive to make a change. The strategy acted as a five-year game plan for a more resilient and sustainable food system. Relish Rhody 2.0 plans its launch soon, and will begin the next phase of action with partnerships with RI Commerce, the DEM, and RIDOH.

Lynch, the Food Policy Council, and Relish Rhody all agree on a more surprising point: Not only does the Southcoast need to supply a stronger local food system with more agriculture, she said, those living in the Southcoast need to demand a stronger local food system by engaging and supporting their local farms and foods.