Don't Bet the Farm On It
🌾 Easing Easement Concern · Tonight at council · Overtime pay· Week in streaming · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. Expect some snow tonight. Onward.
Why some are afraid Governor Lee's Farmland Conservation bill is a land grab in disguise
From Megan Podsiedlik
Protecting the legacy and prosperity of Tennessee’s farmers: a recurring priority set by Governor Bill Lee throughout his administration. “In our state, they keep food on our tables, they drive our economy,” he said during his State of the State address last week. “However, our state is losing 10 acres of farmland per hour, which is a staggering number when agriculture is the number one driver of our economy.”
Once again, the governor has called upon the General Assembly to establish the Farmland Conservation Act. To protect Tennessee’s agricultural assets, the bill would set up a farmland preservation fund in which a qualified non-profit, farmer, or forester could apply for state grant money. Upon enrollment into the program, their land would be placed in a permanent conservation easement.
Last year, to the chagrin of the supporters championing the governor’s farmland conservation solution, the bill died in the Senate Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. The committee has since been reorganized, but despite the renewed efforts and guardrails added to the legislation, questions still loom among House and Senate legislators regarding its long-term implications.
The bill specifies that the land placed in easements must be used for farmland or forestland purposes approved by the Department of Agriculture and bars governmental entities from participating in the grant program. However, the arrangement doesn’t sit well with those who distrust the weighty permanence of the solution.
American Stewards of Liberty, headed by Margaret Byfield, has been tracking Tennessee’s legislation. “Remember no matter what ‘guardrails’ Senator Johnson places on the Fund, the ‘conservation purpose’ will always be the controlling factor on the land,” the organization wrote in a recent article. “The conservation purpose may allow farming and forestry practices, but the conservation purpose determines how many cattle can be grazed, what crops can be planted, how many acres can be farmed, and how many trees can be harvested – forever.”
The article also raises concerns over the bill’s language indicating nonprofits as the only entities qualified as easement holders. “[Johnson] reintroduced the same bill with a few ‘guardrails’ that don’t change the fact that he’s using tax-payer dollars to create a fund that will grant nonprofit organizations millions of public dollars to purchase conservation easements (CEs) on private property.”
The inclusion of nonprofits is a shift from last year’s bill, which only created easements under the control of Tennessee’s Department of Agriculture. We reached out to lawmakers sponsoring the legislation for clarity on the change, but did not receive a response prior to press time.
The unease surrounding non-profit involvement in conservation efforts is well-founded given the changing priorities and limited oversight of such entities. An example of a prominent player in this arena is The Nature Conservancy, an American non-profit founded in 1951 that has established itself in every state across the U.S.
For almost 75 years, the global environmental non-profit has been “working in partnership with individuals, local communities, government agencies, and private businesses to protect the natural landscapes that harbor the diversity of plant and animal life on Earth.” Unfortunately, their altruistic efforts have been marred by controversy, including the sale of ecologically sensitive land at discounted prices to its trustees, permitting oil drilling on donated land, and carbon credit controversies linked to BlackRock and Disney.
The TNC’s ever-changing guard of preservationsts currently includes former U.S. Senator from Tennessee, Bill Frist, who serves as the Chair of The Nature Conservancy’s Global Board of Directors. Though the intentions of the group are rooted in protecting precious farmland across America, it's easy to see why there’s hesitation when it comes to allowing such entities to potentially enter into permanent arrangements associated with Tennessee’s preservation efforts.
While Tennessee’s General Assembly wrestles over the governor’s proposal, the American Stewards of Liberty has posed an alternative solution that would ease land-grab concerns: “In Montana, Senator Tony Tezak (R-Dist 35) filed SB 209 limiting the term for conservation easements in his state so that no easement taken can be ‘in perpetuity.’ This is a good first step to keep CE’s from harming future generations.” The compromise protects current farmland at risk of development and destruction while sunsetting protective easements so land isn’t locked up in an agreement for more than 40 years.
The governor’s conservation easement bill is set for its first committee hearing in Senate Ag at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.
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🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
🏛️ Tonight at Council Nashvillians can expect a few tussles at tonight’s Metro Council meeting. Though Nashville’s plague of car break-ins has struck fear into the community, driving renewed support for both police and surveillance technology, Councilmember Rollin Horton may get an earful from Fusus dissenters during the public comment period. While his bill will not establish a contract with the camera surveillance integration company, it sets new guidelines for the technology, opening the door for new negotiations.
We may also witness some public pushback on a proposal to move the power of the Metro Historical and Zoning Commission to the Planning Department. Not only are local groups organizing against the bill, but the state is also keeping an eye on the situation. The legislation aims to tackle the inefficiencies and tedious discrepancies flagged by a recent report. At the state level, a few bills are sitting on standby if Metro does not find a solution.
💸 Overtime Pay Nashville footed $51 Million in overtime for Metro employees last year. According to the Tennessean, while bus drivers and maintenance workers were among those racking up the most extra hours, officers in the Metro Nashville Police Department landed at the top. During last week’s West Precinct community meeting, Commander Steven Bowers iterated that staffing shortages and need were the top reasons for the amount of voluntary overtime dolled out by the department. Meanwhile, other Metro Departments continue to struggle with staffing shortages and retention rates due to a lack of competitive pay.
DEVELOPMENT
- Sylvan Summit site eyed for scrapped project listed for sale (NBJ)
- East Nashville food hall property listed for sale (Post)
- Downtown office building listed for $35M (Post)
- Downtown garage listed for sale (Post)
✹ THIS WEEK IN STREAMING (February 18th)
A Real Pain (Hulu) Jesse Eisenberg’s sophomore directorial effort garnered Oscar nominations for its screenplay and Kieran Culkin’s turn as a charismatic loafer millennial trying to mask his vulnerability. In playing the foil to Eisenberg’s trademark buttoned-up control freak on a Holocaust tour to visit their grandmother’s home in Poland, Culkin turns what could have been a throwaway smarmy buddy comedy into something far more profound. As we wrote last month,the duo propel the film into one of the great comedies of the post-pandemic era.
SNL50: The Anniversary Special (Peacock) Like the show it celebrates, the weekend’s proceedings were a bit hit or miss, but this is the closest to common cultural ground we still have. See superstar talent like Sabrina Carpenter, Dave Chappelle, and Peyton Manning yuk it up with Not Ready for Primetime Players all-time greats from Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy to Will Ferrell and Tina Fey,
The Pianist (Prime) If all goes according to plan, Adrien Brody is about to win his second Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a Jewish architect navigating post-WWII life in The Brutalist. Though shifting public opinion about Roman Polanksi has made the film that introduced Brody to the world fall by the wayside, it's a 21st century masterpiece that avoids the stodginess of the Holocaust drama and proves its director and actor as two of cinema’s great artists.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎹 Digyphus @ Betty's, 7p, $10, Info
+ A showcase of weirdo synth music
🪕 The Borrowed Mules @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info
🎻 Itzhak Perlman @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7p, $99+, Info
🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p
🎸 Cole Ritter and the Night Owls @ The Underdog, 11:30p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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