EDITORIAL: Protecting farmland vital for S.C.

While one might see land use as an issue in fast-growing counties such as Lexington, Beaufort, Charleston and Greenville, the fact is that all of South Carolina – as the fastest-growing state as identified by the U.S. Census Bureau – is facing long-term threats to the state’s agrarian roots.

“I'm a middle-aged guy and I have seen a lot of land get screwed up through the years, but never have I seen land get destroyed at the rate it is being destroyed lately. … I'm a small farmer by most standards if you look at the acreage I farm, but I lost a total of 342 acres in 2023 alone!” Griffith states.

“That's correct, in one year I lost a total of 342 acres of rented land to development. Now all of the land lost was not just open land, part of it was wooded. However, it's still a big loss to me as a farmer and outdoorsman, and land that will never be farmed or hunted again.

“Farmers like myself can't afford to compete for land with government-subsidized companies, or with developers who constantly sneak around offering large sums of money to local landowners.”

South Carolina is among the top 10 states most threatened by agricultural land loss, according to a 2020 study from the American Farmland Trust. The study found South Carolina lost nearly 300,000 acres of farmland between 2001 and 2016 before the pandemic triggered mass migration to the state in 2020.

South Carolina’s leaders are aware of the challenges posed by rapid development and population growth, and they have taken action via the Working Agricultural Lands Preservation Act.

The new law establishes a program within the South Carolina Conservation Bank to pay landowners for conservation easements to permanently preserve their farmland. The easements are voluntary legal agreements between a landowner and land trust that limit how the land can be used.

Conservation easements lower a property's value because the land cannot be developed. The new Working Farmland Protection Fund would compensate farmers up to 50% of their easement value, or the difference between the land's fair market value and post-easement value.

When deciding on grants for conservation easements, the bank board is to consider several factors, including the threat that the land would be lost to development, the number of on-farm jobs, the suitability of its soil for farming, barns and other agricultural structures associated with a working farm and the natural resources associated with the farmland, such as forested land, wetlands, aquifers, riparian buffers and wildlife habitat.

Writing in today’s T&D Spring Farm edition, S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers states: “When people need new places to live, developers start to eye rural land. The competitive pressure for farmland is most intense in the Lowcountry and Upstate, but the Orangeburg-Calhoun-Bamberg area is feeling it.

“To help feed all these new people, we must protect farms and farming. That means continuing to support our farmers with policies and programs that make farming a financially viable proposition now and in the future.”

Weathers is joined by conservationists and farmers in supporting the Working Agricultural Lands Preservation Act signed by Gov. Henry McMaster this month. He sees adding representatives from agriculture, commerce and transportation to the state Conservation Bank as ensuring that planning for the state’s future takes farmers into account.

Make no mistake, however, the loss of farmland affects more than farmers. South Carolina is a pristine outdoors state, with its rural areas serving as great attractions for hunting, fishing, hiking, wildlife watching – and much more.

As Griffith urges: “People, put your land in some type of conservation reserve that protects it from development, offer your land to a local farmer before you consider selling to someone else, help your kids remodel an existing home or buy them a lot in town. Leave them a place in the country to enjoy before there is no ‘country’ left.”