Are we running out of farmland?
In
a land where potatoes once covered the landscape, traditional farming on the
east end has given way to luxury housing over the last decades.
The
Peconic Land Trust was started in 1983 to ensure the protection of Long
Island’s working farms, natural lands, and heritage.
John
v. H. Halsey, President and founder of the Trust was brought up on a
traditional farm in Southampton Town.
Francesca Rheannon spoke with Halsey in 2013 about land preservation efforts of the Peconic
LandTrust, the demise of traditional farms, how community supported
agriculture was developed by the Land Trust and what can be done to keep protected land in farming.
Here is an update:
More information about the trust is at peconiclandtrust.org.
Here is an update:
Last summer (2014) the Southampton Town Board preserved its first two
farmland parcels with the proviso that the land, 33 acres in Water Mill, must
be in the hands of working food farmers.
The land was sold to a local farmer at considerably below market value
after purchase by the Town and transfer to the Peconic Land Trust.
