EDITORIAL: Our columnists suggest township farmers permanently preserve their farms.
The state and Middlesex County want to help South Brunswick stay green.
County, state and township officials met with about 25 local farmers last week to outline the benefits of the various programs offered and to try to convince at least some of them to permanently preserve their farms.
Under the various programs, farmers sell their farms’ development rights, permanently limiting their use to agriculture.
For the farmers, the program offers an immediate infusion of cash, allowing them to expand their operations or reduce their debt and mortgage payments, while making them eligible for state and county grants and giving them water rights during droughts that other farmers do not have.
In exchange, the state, county and township can cross preserved farms off the list of developable properties, keeping children out of the schools, cars off the road and preventing the other environmental and quality-of-life stresses that come with growth.
So far, 375.51 agricultural acres have been preserved in the township through the traditional county program, which is jointly funded by the state, county and township.
There are several hundred acres that still can be preserved and should be. The state offers direct-easement purchase (in which farmers sell their development rights) and fee-simple purchase (in which the state buys the farm and sells it, deed-restricted, to the highest bidder) programs and is looking for farms in Middlesex County.
We hope farmers in South Brunswick take advantage of the programs.