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State farmland program offers tools and limited funds as Johnston County faces high conversion risk
Summary
A state official told Johnston County commissioners that North Carolina ranks second in projected farmland loss and outlined tools — including permanent easements and a new Agricultural Growth Zone (AGZ) grant program — but warned demand far outstrips available state funding. Johnston County has six recorded easements totaling about 592 acres.
Kevin Leonard, executive director of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, introduced a presentation from Evan Davis, director of farmland preservation at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, who said the state is losing farmland at an alarming rate and offered concrete tools counties can use to protect working lands.
Davis said studies by American Farmland Trust show North Carolina lost about 732,000 acres of agricultural land between 2001 and 2016, and projections to 2040 show between 1.1 million and 1.6 million acres could be converted under different development scenarios. He told the board that, by one county-level metric, Johnston County ranked 19th nationally for potential farmland loss.
The state program Davis described centers on agricultural conservation easements administered through the Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation (ADFP) Trust Fund. He described…
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