CHC News
February 2010
Conservancy Elects Four New Board Members
February 2010
Conservancy Assumes Responsibility for Master Plan for Greenway Trails.
February 2010
The Conservancy Sponsored the Arbor Day.
Farmland Protection and Farm Viability Project
The Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance realizes that preservation of agricultural land and viability of small farms is integral to sustainable development. We are taking a two-pronged approach to preserving these farms.
I. Agricultural Land Protection
The farmland protection programs available that provide cash to farmers, such as the Federal Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program or the Transfer of Development Rights package, will provide badly needed cash to farmers while preserving productive agricultural land. In order to make these programs more accessible to the local farmers, CHC has partnered with the Rolling Hills Rural Conservation and Development Council. In conjunction with Rolling Hills, we have held two informational meetings for local farmers to provide education on the Federal Farmland Program. Additionally, CHC members and staff have met with individual farmers in the area regarding their desire to sell development rights. While both programs provide funds to the landowner, the requirements and resulting restrictions are different. We are working to educate the local farmers on their options, and also to help them find the most appropriate source of funding among the options available. Farmland that is enrolled in the federal protection program or from which development rights are severed will be permanently protected as greenspace. This land will then be included in our Regional Greenspace Inventory.
II. Farm Viability Project
Realizing the financial challenges faced by small family farms facing competition from large agribusiness concerns and retail grocery chains, CHC realizes that a one-time cash infusion from Federal or TDR dollars is not enough. There is a need for an on-going program to address market share and profitability for farm products.
Working with Georgia Organics, the American Farmland Trust, the South Fulton Farm Bureau, and the University of Georgia School of Agriculture, we are attempting to develop a Chattahoochee Hill Country Farm Viability Program to address needs on several fronts.
We believe we can assist local farmers in identifying the market for certain niche products, especially organic products, and we can also provide assistance in marketing them with a farmers cooperative. Integral to that effort would be a mentoring program to assist farmers with conversion to new crops, including organic production, and a program to attract and develop new farmers. Our economic focus will be both wholesale and retail. This effort would be significantly enhanced by the addition of an expert appointee from the University of Georgia to help coordinate these efforts. Faculty from the University of Georgia School of Agriculture have visited the area twice and the Dean has expressed interest in our project.