The Shapiro administration recently announced Pennsylvania preserved 1,519 acres on 22 farms in 11 counties, forever protecting them from residential or commercial development.

The development rights recently approved for purchase by the Pennsylvania Land Preservation Board represent a more than $5.8 million investment in ensuring Pennsylvania farmers will have prime farmland to feed our families and economy in the future.

“In the simplest terms, without farms, we don’t eat,” Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said. “Pennsylvania has some of the richest soil in the nation and is situated near ports, railways, interstate highways and 40% of the nation’s population - the very people we need to feed. Protecting those economic opportunities and irreplaceable resources for our farmers is one of the most important investments we make as a state.”

Farms preserved this month include Weinhofer Farms LLC, a 154-acre crop farm in Whitehall Township; Jody L. and Megan M. Snyder’s 33-acre crop farm in Lehigh Township; Weinhofer Farms LLC No. 3, a 16-acre crop farm in East Allen Township; William G. and Cheryl C. Ash and Brian Brady’s horse farm in Heidelberg Township; and Errol W. and Virginia A. Zellner, Brenda Kay and Robert Price’s 28-acre crop farm in Washington Township.

The total investment for Lehigh County is $1,645,867, including $220,018 from the state and $1,425,848 from the county.

The Northampton County total investment is $552,772 from the state.

Two Schuylkill County farms will trigger additional investment of federal dollars through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program. The farms are along the Kittatinny Ridge, an area rich in farmland and forested land, critical not just for producing food, but for providing wildlife habitat and improving the health of the Chesapeake Bay, and with it, the water supply of the mid-Atlantic region.

These dollars will be used for preserving farms whose owners have applied for easements but were placed on a waiting list until funds became available.

Pennsylvania leads the nation in preserved farmland. Since 1988, when voters overwhelmingly supported the creation of the Farmland Preservation Program, Pennsylvania has protected 6,336 farms and 634,375 acres in 58 counties from future development, investing more than $1.69 billion in state, county and local funds.

Pennsylvania partners with county, and sometimes local, government and nonprofits to purchase development rights, ensuring a strong future for farming and food security. By selling their land’s development rights, farm owners ensure their farms will remain farms and never be sold to developers.

These purchases continue to multiply Pennsylvania dollars invested in conservation initiatives, including the $154 million Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program, supporting farmers’ efforts to reduce water pollution and improve soil quality, along with Clean and Green tax incentives, resource enhancement and protection dollars and other conservation funding.

Pennsylvania’s Farmland Preservation Program also secured a $7.85 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program to support climate-smart conservation on preserved Pennsylvania farms, an investment that will not only improve conservation efforts but help measure their impact.