Financial pressures on farmers have led to a continued loss of New York farmland, according to a new audit by the New York state comptroller, which recommended increasing the use of the farmland protection program to help mitigate these losses.
“In many parts of New York, farmers face increased pressure to sell their land for development or for solar farms, but our agriculture sector and consumer access to local food rely on keeping prime land in production. In my office’s ongoing examination of New York’s agricultural economy and the challenges family farms contend with, we found the Farmland Protection Program has preserved more than 114,000 acres but can do more to address changing needs and support the future of farming,” said Comptroller Tom DiNapoli in a statement.
The audit found an average delay of 200 days in the last two rounds of funding for the program, which they blamed on inefficiencies in how the money is split…