Don't Bet the Farm On It

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 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 new 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 raised 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 preservationists 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 wildlife, land, and resources in America and beyond, it's easy to see why there’s hesitation when it comes to allowing such entities to potentially enter into permanent arrangements associated with state-funded 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 conserves farmland currently at risk of development and destruction while sunsetting protective easements so land isn’t locked into 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.