Proposed legislation could drastically increase the amount of agricultural lands eligible for protections

County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources Stacy White during a special event at the extension office last year

If signed into law, a bill currently making the rounds in Frankfort could result in more farms being able to receive certain protections by petitioning to become what is known as an “agricultural district.”

House Bill 418, which was crafted by 51st District Rep. Michael Pollock, 88th District Rep. and Minority Caucus Chair Cherlynn Stevenson and 89th District Rep. Timmy Truett was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives on Feb. 20. It was one of the many bills set to be voted on in the Senate this week, and if favorably received there, it will move on to Gov. Andy Beshear’s desk for final approval.

Originally introduced on Jan. 30, HB 418 seeks to, “Amend KRS 262.850 to decrease the minimum number of acres to qualify as an agricultural district from 250 acres to 50 acres.”

What is an agricultural district, you ask?

The previously mentioned KRS 262.850, also known as the Agricultural District and Conservation Act, states that its purpose is to, among other things, “provide a means by which agricultural land may be protected and enhanced as a viable segment of the state’s economy and as an important resource.”

Jerry Pierce, coordinator of the Kentucky Farm Business Management Program at the University of Kentucky, further explained the concept of agriculture districts in a recent report, saying, “The program was created by the Kentucky Legislature in 1982. [It] does include the Farm Tax Exemption for real estate taxes, but it also provides certain protections to farmland from annexation and condemnation, as in for highway or landfill.”

Pierce goes on to explain that, “any landowner, or group of landowners, may submit a petition to the local conservation district requesting the creation of an agricultural district within the county.”

While the petition itself is relatively simple, Pierce explained in his report that the overall process to receiving an agricultural district designation could take up to a year from the time of the initial request.

“Every five years, the Board of Supervisors will review any changes in the agricultural district and your desire to continue participation,” Pierce added in his report.

According to statistics recently released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as part of their 2022 Census of Agriculture, the state of Kentucky has just under 70,000 farms currently in operation. Land used for various types of farming in the state includes approximately 12.4 million acres, and the average size of a farm is about 180 acres.

When breaking things down by county, the USDA report showed the following:

Knox County – 293 farms reported, including a total of 32,034 acres (109-acre avg.)

Laurel County – 871 farms reported, including a total of 79,761 acres (92-acre avg.)

Whitley County – 476 farms reported, including a total of 62,190 acres (131-acre avg.)

As the above numbers indicate, making farms 50 acres and larger eligible for protections under the Agricultural District and Conservation Act could open up some valuable opportunities for many farmers across the Commonwealth, including right here at home in the tri-county area.

Stacy White is the County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Whitley County. He thinks that reducing the acreage requirements for ag districts could be helpful, saying, “In my opinion, I think what it will do is make it easier for a particular farmer to enroll their land. I think that the main thing is trying to protect the agricultural lands from annexation and development. My gut feeling is that, in some of the bigger urban areas, it could be a way to keep that land for agricultural use instead of it getting sucked into an urban municipality. I would suspect that is probably part of what this is for.”

Speaking about the importance of conservation, White said, “That is certainly a big piece of the puzzle. If you lose all of your ag land, it puts you at a fundamental disadvantage, because if we’re not producing something here, then we will have to buy it from someone else.”

“You might consider the strong demand for locally produced food,” White added. “That could play into this too, because if everything ends up being developed, then there is no locally produced food.”

By “locally produced food” White means food that is produced not just here in the local area, but food that is produced in Kentucky for consumption by Kentuckians, or even food produced in other parts of the country that is distributed within the United States.

“If we begin to shift our food production to other entities who may not have our best interests at heart, that is a negative for us,” White warned. “I think that part of the demand for locally produced food is to achieve some type of food security. Just to know that we will be able to feed ourselves, and that we can trust the safety and quality of the food.”

These concepts are at the heart of the ongoing efforts by the Whitley County High School Agricultural Education Program to provide fresh, locally sourced food products to not only individual buyers, but also to restaurants and to the cafeterias located on the school district’s main campus.

Brian Prewitt is the director of the WCHS ag-ed program. He says that disappearing farmland is a great concern across the country, and he hopes that legislation like HB 418 will help to preserve much of the remaining land for future use.

“Most of that loss is due to urban sprawl, and I think that this could help us to protect some of those lands,” Prewitt said. “We are not next to any big cities here in Whitley County, but this definitely applies to farms here too. If we can protect these lands in some way, shape or form with these bills, and also protect farmers from high property taxes that cut into their profits, I think that will be good.”

“The more [food] that we can grow in the United States, or the more that we can grow locally, that is less time that we are having to have it shipped in, and less preservatives that we’ll have to use,” Prewitt explained. “I think that our state has done a great job of promoting the Kentucky Proud initiative, and putting money into that in order to help local growers keep it close to home, whether it’s farm-to-school, farm-to-table or at farmer’s markets. There is definitely an issue with making sure that those farms continue producing, though, whether that be through zoning, or helping out with tax issues.”

“I think that, traditionally, when people thought about farming, they thought about large-scale farms,” Prewitt added. “But there has been a push in agriculture, especially in the last 5-10 years, for smaller farms to be able to make it. Many of them are doing well by catering to a niche market. There are farms that are about 50 acres in size that are doing that, and they are doing well. This (HB 418) would give them the opportunity to get some protections as well as the big guys.”