Page 10 - Farm and Food Policy Strategies for 2040 Series

Another investor group, Ceres Farms, acquires properties and leases them to local farmers who
grow corn, soybeans, wheat or specialty crops on a scheduled rotation. In less than a decade,
Ceres has acquired over 100,000 acres across ten states and has grown to over half a billion
dollars in assets under management.

Conserving farmland
Another big trend is in conservation easements, which are rapidly expanding claims on U.S.
agricultural land titles.
The easements are a partial ownership of land that prohibits or limits development and aims to
protect wildlife, landscape or other conservation uses. They are funded by various national, state
or local government entities and conservation organizations and are typically acquired by land
trusts set up to own and manage them.
Some of the land trusts aim primarily or exclusively to retain agricultural use of land. Nationally,
the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service awards Agricultural Conservation Easement
Program (ACEP) grants to sponsor permanent easements on farmland. In fact, the 2018 farm bill
ramped up funding, mandating $450 million a year for ACEP through 2023, up from $250
million in 2018.
Futch says that, among Florida’s agricultural landowners, selling conservation easements “is a
good strong trend with people who are aging now and divvying up their property.” Many sell the
easements “so the land can still stay in the family,” he says, and the sale means that “they get
cash to work with,” even though the land will then list for substantially less – often about half of
its previous value – because of the easement restrictions.
Land trusts and public programs have accrued 6.5 million acres of easements so far to
specifically protect U.S. agricultural lands, representing a 38% increase in the past five years.
That is the tally from an ATF survey of nearly 700 land trusts in 2017, with results added to a
listing of farmland protection easements held by public agencies and reported in December.

8 www.Agri-Pulse.com