Committee advances bill to create voluntary agricultural conservation easement program

Representative Curt Culp presented House Bill 1234 to the House Agriculture Committee and the panel voted to advance the measure after testimony from farmers, conservation groups and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. The legislation would create a framework allowing willing farmland owners to donate or convey agricultural conservation easements and permit the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) or qualified land trusts to hold those easements.

The bill’s backers told the committee the measure is a voluntary tool to stem farmland loss. "House Bill 1234 lays the vital groundwork to give farmers and landowners the option to protect their land for future generations," said Chris Reynolds, Midwest regional director for American Farmland Trust. Witnesses cited an ISDA inventory that found roughly 345,000 acres of Indiana farmland lost…